Cuidao, cuidao muchacho.
From a tv show tonight, the lady says to her son "cuidao, cuidao muchacho". It was clear that she was telling him to be careful, "I'm about to slap you" or something like that because they were arguing.
The lady plainly said "cuidao, cuidao" and the subtitles were spelled just as I have the words here. I listened a couple of more times just to make sure I wasn't hearing things.
What am I hearing? Is this some colloquial way of saying "cuidado" or is this a word I should have learned a long time ago?
Thanks.
5 Answers
For the same reason Americans leave the 'G' off the end of 'ing' words. It's just a local accent. Caribbean Spanish is famous for this. They "elide" (meaning gloss over) the "D" if it's between two vowels. Helado becomes Hela'o. Cuidado becomes Cuida'o. It's like leaving the "S" off the ends of words. "Mas o menos" becomes "Maomeno". It's a regional accent thing, like Bostonian, Charlestonian, Long Islandian, Texan, etc.
People from Northern Spain say 'cuidao' and 'pescau' (pescado) and 'cuidao' (cuidado) in fact if you listen to the audio that Heidita put on with el Sr Alvite you will soon realize that he has one of those accents (Gallego). I can tell you a joke to illustrate it hopefully I can remember it.
Un joven de Bilbao (in the North) bajo a Madrid para vivir y en seguida se dió cuenta que la gente hablaban de otra manera. Como era un chico muy listo empezó a cambiar su manera de hablar y cuando se fue al restaurante para almorzar siempre pidió 'pescado' (antes hubiera dicho 'pescau') cuando andaba por la calle y vió un hombre a punto de chocar con algo, gritó '¡cuidado!' (en vez de cuidao) y pensaba que todo iba muy bien en la ciudad. Al final - un día entró en un bar para tomar una copa y el mozo le dijo 'oye, hombre, ¿de dónde eres? Y el joven respondió - 'pues, ¿yo? soy de Bilbado'.
A young man from Bilbao in the North went to live in Madrid and right away noticed that people spoke differently. Since he was very smart he right away changed his way to talking so when he asked for fish he would use the Castillano prononciation and say 'pescado' instead of pescau, when he was in the street and someone was about to get hit he shouted 'cuidado' instead of 'cuidao' Finally one day he went into a bar to have a drink and the waiter said to him 'hey man where are you from?' and the young fellow replied 'who me? I'm from Bilbado' (changing it incorrectly to the Castilliano way instead of leaving the place name to it's proper way Bilbao).
This type of "contraction" is very common in Cuba. Was it perhaps a program from Cuba that you were watching? I don't know if this happens in other spanish-speaking countries.
I have to admit that after spending just a short time in Cuba, I began to adopt this way of speaking, as well as dropping the "s" in the middle, and at the end of words, terrible! However, it just goes to show you, immersion is the best way to learn a language!
Well according to RAE it's not a word so it sounds like relaxed pronunciation perhaps - you know, like our 'get out of here' - might sound like 'git outta hea' 
From the look of things it's so common that people will even spell it like that, Google gives over 3 million hits for that spelling!
Hola Jack,
It's cuidado, just how it sounds sometimes when it is spoken.
Cuidao o pa' la casa...
