Spanish slang question?

Question

I noticed in a lot of reggaton songs they say things like "combinao, activao, etc..." what is with the "ao" are they really just using ado but just leave out the d? is this a puerto rican thing too? and why do they do it? thanks

Answer 1

Yo see Gordon,........ you are making a spanish "grammar" question, not a "puerto rican" question. So as a spanish native speaker i am going to answer it in that way:

Your concern about why we, latin american people, do that is a "legit" one.

Combina´o [combinado], activa´o [activado], desespera´o [desesperado], aburri´o [aburrido], empuja´o mpujado], just to name a few are CONTRACTIONS of the spanish language. A "contraction" is the formation of a new word from one or more individual words.

English language speakers do the same when the say: It´s [it is], Who´s [who is], What´s [what is], etc.

The only difference is that -because the lack of education of the latin americans- we don´t put the "apostrophe" [punctuation " ´ "] to indicate that we are making the word shorter as you english speakers do. Of course that´s a mistake we make.!

Check this link and you´ll see that french, italian, portuguese, german, and japanese natives do the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraction...

Hope this answer your question in a proper way.

Answer 2

it's a puerto rican thing too

Answer 3

One of the reason is that people that write reggeaton songs are a group of poor boys, some of them come the barrio, poor but not bad and in order to make the songs with rithmic or make sense they have to finish the word ao instead of ado.  If you hear some flamenco songs from Spain you could hear the same thing. Let say instead my mother (mi madre) they usually say mi mare and mi pare(mi padre) and also they pronounce ao instead of ado, but that sort off like a slang, I'm not very fun of reggeaton, some of them are OK but some of them especially the dancing, I don't like it.  If you see a lot Puerto Rican that talk in television, you could see the different  way they talk. When you see an interview in T.V. you don't hear them talk like that.  When I said poor, you have to give them credit because these boys, some of them without having much education and no money but just a pencil and a peace paper had became very succecful and become millionaire, even if they pronounce ao or ado, they are making a good job instead of selling drugs or stealing.  You have to read the history about Puerto Rico that most of people than come from Spain and other European country, american, black, south americans, but as I herd once, If you want to be succecful especially in what's is in style ,writing, singing, dancing, you have to move with the crow.  That's what they call reggeaton which I think it mean regueteado.  No, that's not a Puerto Rican things there are a lot county writing reggeaton and over the word, a there is that said "if it work don't fix it."  It seem to work, until they come out with something else. By any chance did you hear what they used to call rapero?  They changed to reggeaton and put some music with a sound of bit that sound better. Also they used to called perreo, but it was never success until they change the name.  But what really amaze me is you see a little kid in PR and they hear something, they start writing a song or either they start dancing.  I'm glad you asked that question, but it seem to me that they have a lot of talent.  I had hear people who's suppose to speak English, they were born in U.S and went to school, and they talk slang, even my supervisor say: no she don't, when in reality should be "no she does't right?  keep writing.  I would keep writing but I would run out of space.  I'm not an English teacher, and English is not my first language so forgive me for the mistake since I'm in hurry and I find your question interesting.  Go to Webside and check Puerto Rico history, I do that to many country.   ga

Answer 4

That's probably what you are seeing. I've never noticed it, because I don't listen to reggaton...but it is totally common in Andalucía.  I've heard people in the Islands do that, as well.  Their ancestors came largely from that part of Spain, so the language similarity is typical.

Answer 5

"Activao" is an example of "Boricua" culture, Puerto Rican Spanish.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boricua

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rica...

Answer 6

Here's an example of the same thing in the English language:

Instead of "See you later"

People "slang it up" by saying "See you lataaa"

It's a slang thing. BTW, Puerto ricans didn't "invent" Reggaeton, they were a big part in getting it "out there" so to speak. Panama originally started the Reggaeton movement.

People do it because they dont want to carry out a word entirely period. :)

Answer 7

its a proboly puerto rican thing

ts not a word it just goes with the

song.

Answer 8

yep its -ado. just to to say it faster i guess. People from other places say these words ending in ado like -ao when talking fast, people from Colombia, Venezuela, Panama tend to speak this way...

Answer 9

look it up on this site: http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/gob...

Answer 10

Gordon, you're correct, and good observation by the way!

When said quickly (and without concern of sounding articulate) many words ending in "ado" actually sound like "ao". As other answers have suggested, it's just a faster, more relaxed way to say the word. As we do in English often (eg. "what's up" becomes "was' up"). Even though we still write it correctly (hopefully) very few people take the time to correctly pronounce each letter.

I did want to add that dropping that "d" is more common in songs and singing, but also the caribbean accent in Spanish tends to do it more often than in other parts of Latin America.