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When I looked up the Chinese word for "survive" so far I only came up with "生存"?
But the glosses into English 生存 cover "live", "exist", "subsist".
This seems to be quite different from the common English meaning og getting through dangerous event unscathed.
Is there a better Chinese word that has that meaning?
I think it's better to say:"幸存"。That means someone go through some bad things such as disaster or serious illness, and still be alive.
Major Update:
Since the word "survive" contains more than one meaning, it may be necessary to translate different definition to different Chinese word.
verb (used without object), survived, surviving.
In definition (1), there is no simple translation for " to remain alive after the death of someone" but for "continue to live" , the translation would be 生還; 存活
Few survived after the holocaust (大屠殺之後很少人生還/存活)
In definition (2), the translation would be 留存; 保存
No simple translation for definition (3)
She's surviving after the divorce (離婚後她繼續正常地生活下去)
verb (used with object), survived, surviving.
In definition (4), there's no simple translation for the first example sentence. For the second example sentence, the translation would be 挺過
In definition (5), the translation would be 挺過
The sentence in the question "I survived the typhoon” is similar to the example sentence in definition (4): He survived the operation. which means survived should be translated to 挺過了
He survived the operation (他挺過了手術)
I survived the typhoon (我挺過了颱風)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
生還 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/30546/
"I survived the typhoon”
我在颱風中生還
我在颱風中脫險
我在颱風中存活
Unlike " to survive" in English, the Chinese verb 生存，生還，脫險 and 存活 do not act on object. You cannot say 我生還了颱風 or 我脫險了颱風
For verb that can act on an object like typhoon (颱風) , you can use "挺過"
挺 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2044/
*[3] endure
Example:
"我挺過了颱風" (I survived/ endured the typhoon)
"這建築物挺過了三次戰爭" (this building survived / endured three wars)
Thanks for the good question. It's always interesting to see the cultural difference between English speaking countries vs Chinese speaking countries.
Common phrases for surviving a typhoon would be 度過颱風 -> survived a typhoon
It's often combined with 平安 -> peacefully (平安度過颱風), which shows the religious cultural side of Chinese (referencing Taoism & Buddhism). It feels like there is a sense of acknowledgement and respect of nature, like it something can one cannot prevent/stop. In English speaking countries, one would hardly ever describe surviving a typhoon as hoping for a peaceful outcome.
生存 is highly influenced by pop culture like zombies and survival (live or die) type situations. Games like《How to Survive》, are translated as 殭屍生存遊戲.
The word '生存' does not imply much details about how much suffering you have experienced and it only gives the information that you are alive.
The word '幸存' means that not only are you alive but also have experienced some difficulties to get through. Besides, it usually indicates that this is a relatively good outcome by the character'幸' in the word.
The word '度过' means that you have just experienced it in contrast to the case in which you have never had such an experience.
The word '挺过' is the stronger form of '度过' in tone, by the use of which you may want to tell people you finally got through it and you were very relieved after it. Some struggling and suffering are included.
The word '存活' is a little emotive compared to '生存' which is quite formal and neutral.
The word '生还' is the written form of '存活' when one refers to the result rather than the process.
I have to point out that almost any of the words in the many posts of others is completely right to use in the view of a Chinese as long as it is grammatical. The difference lies in which Chinese character the word that you use contains. You know, character and word are two different concepts in Chinese and it is the core of Chinese learning at the advanced level.
Finally, there seems no single words with the meaning'get through a disaster unscathed', and if 'survive' also has the meaning of unscathed, I suppose you would have to express it in two words, which could be like this: 在这场台风中，我毫发未损。' or '我毫发无伤地在这场台风中生还下来。'.
