Newbie - Watch out!

¡Cuidado! ;-)

Today's lesson is all about a close call.  You can yell ¡Cuidado! when someone is about to get into trouble.

So for the question of the day... When do you want to yell ¡cuidado! at someone?  Answer in Spanish or in English! 

Yo le quiero gritar ¡cuidado! al taxista que quería engañarle a Esti esta mañana.  ¡Cuidadito, hombre!  No enfades a mi amiga vasca!  I want to yell "Careful!" at the taxi driver who tried to take Esti for a ride this morning.  Look out, dude, don't make my Basque friend mad...

Quiero decir "cuidado" a los chinos en bicicletas cuando me miren a mi en vez del trafico.

I want to say, "careful" to the Chinese on bikes who are looking at me instead of the traffic.

Quiero decir ¡Cuidado! a mi nieta. Yo siempre estoy atenta. Ella tengo uno año. La fiesta de cumpleaños de Gabriella es Jueves, 9/25/08.

I want to say Careful! to my granddaughter. I am always watchful. She is one year old. Gabriella's birthday party is Thursday, 9/25/08.

missworldtraveler, ¿vives aquí en China tú también?  Es verdad, los ciclistas en China (bueno, no tanto en Shanghai, pero en otras ciudades) nos miran como si mirarnos fuera su trabajo.  ¡Cuidado, 朋友!

Do you live here in China as well?  It's true, the cyclists in China (well, not so much in Shanghai, but in other cities) look at us as if looking at us were their job.  Look out, amigo! 

Quiero decir ¡cuidado! a mi compañero de trabajo. El hace algunas decisiónes muy interesante.

I would like to say "be careful" to my co-worker. He makes some interesting choices.

Please correct my errors.

Thanks!

quiero decir "cuidado" a mi hija. Ella es muy rápida.

¿se puede traducir esta frase como "take caution"? no es literalmente lo mismo pero suena mejor. y "you should be careful" sirve bien también. ¿qué piensas?

Si, digo "cuidado" casi todo el tiempo porque tengo hijos. Siempre estoy como "hazme caso y ten cuidado". Antes de tener hijos, no me di cuenta que peligroso es el mundo. Hay muchas diferencias entre las cosas hoy dia y cuando yo era nina. Se me hace mucho mas peligroso.  

missworldtraveler,

Cuidado! todo el mundo está mirando a tu vestido rojo y a tu gracioso sombrero negro. Es bastante para detener el tráfico! jejeje

Everybody is looking at your red dress and your funny black hat.  It is enough to stop traffic! hahaha

under340,algunas correcciones,

Quiero decirLE ¡cuidado! a mi compañero de trabajo. El hace TOMA algunas decisiones muy interesanteS.

Hmm. "¡Cuidado!" no es un adjetivo aquí, ¿verdad? Entonces se dice por ejemplo "¡Cuidado, hija!" y no "¡Cuidada, hija!". Por eso la gramática es diferente de "¡Tranquilo/-a/-os/-as!", ¿no?

Hmm. "¡Cuidado!" isn't an adjective here, right? Therefore, you say, for example "¡Cuidado, hija! and not "¡Cuidada, hija!" Thus, the grammar is different from "¡Tranquilo/-a/-os/-as!" (Be calm/relaxed!), isn't it?

martinillo, you're right, when you're yelling "¡Cuidado!" it doesn't behave like an adjective.  In fact, it behaves like a noun in "ten cuidado" or "con cuidado." 

You might think of it as a noun "el cuidado" or as an invariable interjection.

JP: Gracias!

in the dialogue the girl says ''Que tengas cuidado''. What form of verb tenir is ''tengas''? We say ''tú tienes cuidado'' right? Why is it here ''tengas''? I just a newbie. I don't understand....:(

epatarid

This is the subjective form of tener for tu See wordreferance.  If I could be so bold, I would suggest that you do not worry much about the subjective now if you are a newbie, let me just say that this form of the verb is used because she is giving him advice. 

epatarid:

Now I agree with stevestrv (WHO HAS JUST CHANGED HIS COMMENT WHILE I WAS COMMENTING ON HIS PREVIOUS COMMENT!!! ;-) The best advice is probably that you learn it as a chunk without analyzing, and don't forget the "que"! If you need a pattern, there are other similar phrases:

¡Que tengas cuidado! - Caution! (That you have caution.)

¡Que te diviertas! - Have fun! (That you enjoy.)

¡Que lo pases bien. - Have fun! (That you pass it well.)

As stevestrv says, "tengas" is the tú-form of "tener" in the present tense subjunctive. Thus, this is a subordinate clause in the subjunctive introduced with "que". You can add a main clause such as "espero" - I hope:

Espero que tengas cuidado. - I hope that you have caution.

And with verbs expressing hope, doubt, advice etc. such as "espero" you need to have the subjunctive in the subordinate clause.

epatarid

Thank you and I agree with what you said

Esti,

Thank you for correcting me! Would you tell me (or would someone tell me) please why I should say "Quiero decirle" and not simply "quiero decir"?

Thanks!

That still doesn´t make sense to me.

It looks, smells, and tastes like an imperative, command form of cuidar.

It has the profile of an irregular form. It is an active form. It is a very common form, a very important form that must be understood. by the listener. It doesn´t matter whether you know them or not, or if there are 3 listeners when the  warning is given.

It acts like an irregular verb form.  (tú, él, ella, usted, ellos, ellas, vosotros/as) Cuidado.

It is the participio form (the root form of the compound tenses, multi word verb phrases)

so she says, "¡Cuidado!" and he answers "¡He cuidado!"???

(You)be careful.  & (I) was careful.

One can call it a noun, but then the usage is  (ten, tenga, tened, tengan - verb understood) cuidado.

To be an adjective, it would need a noun to define.

 trabajo cuidado  -  impeccable work ??

Martin hace el trabajo cuidado.
Martin does impeccable work.

cobre:

One can call it a noun, but then the usage is  (ten, tenga, tened, tengan - verb understood) cuidado.

I think that is what happens. Other examples in which Spanish speakers throw nouns at each other:

• ¡Salud! - Enjoy (your drink)!
• ¡Perdón! - Excuse me!
• ¡Mucho gusto! - Pleased to meet you.
• ¡Atencíon! - Attention!
• ¡Ojo! - Pay attention!

cobre

I believe that when someone says “cuidado”, cuidado is a noun and he/she is really saying “ten cuidado” (have care) just like in English we say “carefule” which is short for “be careful”  The other person would answer “he tenido cuidado” (I have had care – I have been careful) or “tengo cuidado” (I have care – I am carful).  

I do not think “He cuidado” Works.  To me He cuidado means I have cared for something, for example  He cuidado a los niños – I have cared for the children.  

Newbie

There is a lot of grammar in the comments here which is not at the newbie level.  I would like to suggest that the most important thing to walk a way with is that

¡cuidado!  means    be careful!

And it does not mater if you are talking to one person or a group of people, formal or informal. This is an expression and not a complete sentence.

Thanks Steve,

I am sure you are right.  I looked at it again after I had posted and realized that care and caring, even take care, were not the same as careful or full of care.(take care was close but it wasn´t full yet ;-) )

cuidado as a noun is an object containing as much of the action care/cuidar as is possible.

It is indeed a noun, that when used by itself as a predicate nominative, implies both the verb (tener) and the subject (you, y´all).

And thanks Martinillo. I had not thought about those other nouns, and when I see them, I realize that English does the same thing.

Cobre

You are welcome. These are very interesting discussions.

Yo le quiero avisar a mi amigo,¡Ten Cuidado!,cuando esta cortando los arboles con mi sierra mecánica....☺☺☺

hi im new here so im newbie , ineed someone to show me how to use words and where put it idont understand any thing ,there's a lot of words and evry word have many meaning

by the way i need to learn

i need to kmow (she, he) in spanish

sagemsam:

she = ella

he = él

Hope that helps

sagemsam,

watch this video called La Clave to learn more about the pronouns: he/él, she/ella

Muchas Gracias steve y Martinillo,

thanks a lot for your explanation. I can understand what you say about subjective, because i had to learn about ''subjonctif'' in French. I just wanted to know what form of the verb tener is ''tengas''. Thanks a lot!

Elisavet from Greece!

epatarid

You are welcome and I am sorry that I spelled subjective wrong.

I LIKE THE LESSONS. HAVING TROUBLE WITH TRANSLATING, CAN YOU HELP ME

apples

Do you have any specific questions?

stevesterv (et al)

Are subjunctive and subjective interchangeable terms ive always put this down to typos in previous messages but since you guys are saying that you truly intended "subjective"i'm a bit confused now. Are we talking about the same thing?

Donperigo

The answer is no, it was a mistake on my part and I am sorry for the confusion.  I type my comments in MS Word and I misspelled subjective.  When Word suggested subjective I carelessly accepted it.  Again I am sorry.

¡Donperigo, te has convertido en la Galaxia del Sombrero! ¡Qué lindo! :)

Donperigo, you have transformed yourself in the Sombrero Galaxy! How nice! :)

Martinillo. Muy impresionante. Sabes tus galaxias.   buscaba por una foto de un sombrero y encuentro un galaxia muy muy lejos

Stevestrv: enough with the hair shirt already:-)
no harm done, confusion is where i live :-)

my friend would always say " cuidate mucho, amiga" when we say goodbye. Is it the same as tengas cuidado?

ewong, cuidate is take care (of yourself), tengas cuidado should be pay attention, watch out.

Fabrizio, ten cuidado con los mandatos irregulares :)

Thanks Anna. ;-)

Besides, I thought tengas (present subjunctive) were a gentler way than ten (imperative) to make a recommendation. Am I wrong?

fabrizio

Normally you would say ten cuidado,  In this dialog you heard Esti say “que tengas cuidado” but that was an answer to the questing Qué dices? So the answer “que tengas cuidado” means “that you should have care” which is a suggestion or advice.

Fabrizio,

That is an interesting question about softening the command by using the subjunctive. I'm interested to know the answer to that.

The indirect command differs from the regular command form.  The indirect command is formed by using que + present subjunctive and it suggests Let or Have him/her/it/them do something.

Que tengas cuidado.

fabrizio when epatarid originally asked why "tenga" cuidado i wrote a gurt long answer which pretty much became redundant because others replied faster than me. I knew it wasnt tienes but I didnt understand why tengas rather than ten but i think i have it sussed.

its all a bit ott for a newbie conversation so i have published it here in the subjunctive group.

whether you can just choose to use a subjuntified verb to shade your meaning this way is not something i understand but because you are making a positive command i think you pretty much have to go with ten.

Thanks Steve. In fact, I've not yet listened to the audio, but I took tengas cuidado from ewong post.

kikuyu, I'll try to give myself an answer. If you use the second person, you are familiar enough with the person you're talking to, so that you can use ten without fear to sound too harsh. If instead you're not so familiar to her, you'll use the third person usted and you'll have only the option to use the present subjunctive tenga.

don, I've read your post and I think you're right.

gracias fabrizio

De nada ewong.

Yo dice tenies cuidado a mi amigo  cuendo somos en le coche y el no respondé gracias. No sé porqué???? Yo solamente avisarlo tener prudente!!! Es peligroso de seguir muy proximo uno otro coche! No?

bonito23

soy un pasajero nervioso y ,en mi experiencia, nadie se agradece nunca consejos de conducción. Aun cuando tienes toda la razón.

la proxima vez podrías decir... ten cuidado ( porque es tu amigo)