Breakdown of La ambulancia llegó rápido y salvó la vida del conductor herido.
Questions & Answers about La ambulancia llegó rápido y salvó la vida del conductor herido.
In Spanish, a definite noun like la ambulancia almost always needs an article (el, la, los, las) when you talk about a specific thing, even where English can drop the.
- La ambulancia llegó… = The ambulance arrived… (a specific ambulance we have in mind)
- Saying just Ambulancia llegó… would sound wrong in standard Spanish.
So:
- Spanish: La ambulancia llegó rápido.
- English: The ambulance arrived quickly.
(English sometimes says Ambulance arrived quickly in headlines, but that style doesn’t transfer to normal Spanish.)
Llegó and salvó are both third person singular, simple past (pretérito indefinido) forms:
- llegar → (ella) llegó
- salvar → (ella) salvó
We use pretérito indefinido for completed actions in the past, seen as finished events:
- The ambulance arrived (finished event).
- It saved his life (another finished event).
If you said llegaba / salvaba (imperfect), you’d be describing ongoing or repeated actions in the past, which doesn’t fit this “one specific incident” meaning.
The accents are there for stress and to distinguish forms:
- llegó: stressed on the last syllable -gó
- salvó: stressed on -vó
They are both:
- 3rd person singular, preterite of regular -ar verbs:
- llegar → llegó
- salvar → salvó
Without the accent, by default llego / salvo would be read as present tense forms (yo llego, yo salvo). The written accent mark shows it’s the past form.
In Spain, you can use ha llegado (present perfect), but the meaning shifts slightly:
- La ambulancia llegó rápido…
→ simple narration of a past event, often with some distance: “The ambulance arrived quickly…” - La ambulancia ha llegado rápido…
→ focuses more on the result in the present or on a very recent event: “The ambulance has arrived quickly…”
In a neutral past narrative (e.g., telling a story), llegó is the most natural choice. Ha llegado sounds more like you’re commenting on something that has just happened or is relevant right now.
In this sentence, rápido functions as an adverb (describes how the ambulance arrived):
- La ambulancia llegó rápido. = “The ambulance arrived quickly.”
In Spanish, many adjectives can also be used as adverbs in their masculine singular form, especially with verbs of movement and manner:
- Habla claro. = “Speak clearly.”
- Corre rápido. = “Run fast/quickly.”
You can say:
- La ambulancia llegó rápidamente.
This is grammatically correct, but sounds a bit more formal or literary. In everyday speech in Spain, rápido as an adverb is more common and more natural.
Literally:
- salvó la vida del conductor = “saved the life of the driver”
Spanish often uses the structure salvar la vida (a alguien):
- Le salvó la vida al conductor. = “He/she saved the driver’s life.”
Both options are possible:
- Salvó la vida del conductor.
- Salvó al conductor.
Nuance:
- Salvó la vida del conductor focuses on the life as what was saved.
- Salvó al conductor focuses directly on the person.
In practice, both communicate that the driver didn’t die; the original just uses the very common collocation salvar la vida (de / a alguien).
In Spanish, de + el merges into a mandatory contraction:
- de + el → del
- a + el → al
So:
- la vida del conductor = la vida de el conductor (but this is never written out; we must write del).
You cannot write:
- ✗ de el conductor
It’s always: - ✓ del conductor
The personal a appears before direct objects that are people:
- Veo a Juan. = I see Juan.
- Ayudaron al conductor. = They helped the driver.
(a + el → al)
In the sentence:
- salvó la vida del conductor
conductor is not the direct object of the verb salvar; the direct object is la vida.
Structure:
- Verb: salvó
- Direct object: la vida
- Complement: del conductor (“of the driver”)
Since conductor is part of a prepositional phrase introduced by de (del), we don’t use the personal a here.
In Spanish, most descriptive adjectives typically go after the noun:
- un coche rojo = a red car
- un conductor nervioso = a nervous driver
- un conductor herido = an injured driver
Herido here is a past participle of herir (to wound/injure) used as an adjective, so it follows the usual pattern and comes after the noun.
Putting it before (herido conductor) would sound poetic or very marked/unusual in modern Spanish. The normal, everyday order is conductor herido.
Herido agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes:
- Masculine singular: conductor herido
- Feminine singular: conductora herida
- Masculine plural: conductores heridos
- Feminine plural: conductoras heridas
So, if the driver were a woman:
- La ambulancia llegó rápido y salvó la vida de la conductora herida.
Yes, both are natural and common in Spain:
- Salvó la vida del conductor herido.
- Le salvó la vida al conductor herido.
Explanation:
- In (2), you have:
- Indirect object pronoun: le (to him/to her)
- Indirect object phrase: al conductor herido
This is a very common double-marking pattern in Spanish:
- Le di el libro a Juan. = I gave Juan the book.
So an alternative full sentence could be:
- La ambulancia llegó rápido y le salvó la vida al conductor herido.
It’s completely correct and sounds very natural.
Key points (standard peninsular pronunciation):
ambulancia:
- am-bu-LAN-thia
- c before i or e is like English th in think in most of Spain (ceceo): -lan-thia.
llegó:
- ye-GÓ (stress on -gó)
- ll is usually pronounced like a soft y sound (y in yes), though it varies by region: ye-gó or closer to je-gó.
herido:
- e-RI-do (stress on -ri-)
- The h is always silent in Spanish. So you don’t pronounce any h sound at all: it starts with a vowel e.
So the whole sentence, approximately:
- La am-bu-LAN-thia ye-GÓ RÁ-pi-do i sal-VÓ la VÍ-da del kon-duk-TOR e-RI-do.