How to Say "survived" in Spanish
The most common Spanish word for “survived” is “sobrevivió” — use 'sobrevivió' when you want to say that someone or something 'survived' in the simple past tense, referring to a completed action in the past..
sobrevivió
Examples
El perro sobrevivió al incendio gracias a los bomberos.
The dog survived the fire thanks to the firefighters.
sobrevivido
/so-breh-vee-vee-doh//so.βɾe.βiˈβi.ðo/
Examples
¿Has sobrevivido a otro lunes?
Have you survived another Monday?
Nunca habríamos sobrevivido sin su ayuda.
We never would have survived without their help.
El pueblo había sobrevivido a sequías e inundaciones.
The town had survived droughts and floods.
Forming Perfect Tenses
To say something 'has happened,' you combine a form of the helping verb haber (to have) with sobrevivido. The form sobrevivido itself never changes, no matter who is doing the surviving.
Transitivity (Surviving Something)
When talking about surviving a specific event (like a disaster or a crisis), Spanish uses the preposition 'a' right after the verb: 'Sobrevivieron a la tormenta' (They survived the storm).
Confusing 'haber' and 'tener'
Mistake: “Yo tengo sobrevivido.”
Correction: Yo he sobrevivido. (The verb 'haber' is the only one used to form perfect tenses, not 'tener'.)
Simple Past vs. Present Perfect
Related Translations
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