A understands intonation and meows in the answer, too, with his intonation. Cats are empaths, they precisely recognize the emotional state and react accordingly. Our speech they do not understand, that is, the meaning of words and phrases.
But human speech is not just words with meaning, even the tone, timbre, volume, which vary depending on the mood, emotional state. If the cat is constantly saying “you fool” gentle voice, stroking or scratching behind his ears, putting in a good word and warm feelings, it is the combination of these sounds will be perceived as a manifestation of love, not an insult. This will be my subjective opinion. Probably not.
Understanding-if there is an understanding of the semantic meaning of words, then definitely not. I don’t think the cats can at least realize that they exist, live. More likely, if your cat responds to the speech addressed to him, it’s probably a conditioned reflex. Cats do not even understand when they point the finger at anything (don’t believe me, check for yourself), and the perception of human speech and say no.
Before stating that cats do not know how to “think”, it is necessary to define the concept of “thinking”. If we are talking about the interpretation of certain events based on experience, not only cats, but all creatures above the frog (though the frogs is just not proven).
