Breakdown of Personne n'aurait survécu à la malédiction du pharaon.
avoir
to have
ne
not (used before the verb)
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
du
of the / from the (masculine singular, with plural des)
personne
nobody / no one
survivre
to survive
le pharaon
the pharaoh
la malédiction
the curse
Questions & Answers about Personne n'aurait survécu à la malédiction du pharaon.
The translation says "Nobody would have survived". Does this mean they would have survived if something else happened?
Not exactly! While it looks like a standard "if/then" conditional, here the past conditional (aurait survécu) is used to report an unconfirmed rumor or allegation. It implies "Allegedly, nobody survived" or "Rumor has it that nobody survived." This is a perfect example of the "conditionnel journalistique" (journalistic conditional).
Why is there an à after survécu? In English we just say "survived the curse".
Why is it Personne n'aurait instead of Personne n'aurait pas?
Since la malédiction is feminine, shouldn't survécu have an extra "e" at the end?
No, because the auxiliary verb is avoir. With avoir, the past participle only agrees with a direct object if it comes before the verb. Here, la malédiction is an indirect object (because it is introduced by the preposition à), so survécu remains invariable and the object do not agree.
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