Cuídate & Ten Cuidado

Question

Hi,

I would like to know when I should be using Cuídate & Ten Cuidado? Any help would be great.

Regards,

Answer 1

Hello!

Cuídate is a compound of the informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of cuidar, cuida and the pronoun te. Ten in ten cuidado is an informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of tener.

Cuídate means take care; be careful as in to ensure health, to take caution & when saying goodbye. Ten cuidado means to watch out as in to be on the alert, to look after & to not trust.

Here are two links from this page on how it's used in a sentence.

• Cuídate
• Ten_cuidado

Hope this helps.

Regards!

Answer 2

I agree completely with Heidita2 y NKM1974.

A few examples of when to say which are:

1. Saying chao to someone getting in a car "Cuidate, ten cuidado" (this translates to a more "Take care, be safe". Cuidate is used to say bye or take care of yourself, while ten cuidado is referring to the driving and being safe.

2. When telling a kid to BE CAREFUL you'd say "TEN CUIDADO"

3. With something like "Be careful with that kid" both sound fine to me but I'd probably say "ten cuidado" or "Ojo".

• Most of the time you could also say "OJO" which literary means "eye" but some Latins use it a lot for "Watch out" or "Be careful"

Answer 3

Hi latin, well, this is compleltey different.

Ten cuidado means: be careful, something might hurt you, you are in danger...

cuidate take care, especially used when saying good-bye