Devo rifornire l’auto di benzina prima del viaggio.

I

Breakdown of Devo rifornire l’auto di benzina prima del viaggio.

• di: of
• prima: before
• il viaggio: the trip

Questions & Answers about Devo rifornire l’auto di benzina prima del viaggio.

What does rifornire mean in this sentence and is it transitive?

Rifornire means to refill or to supply something with what it needs. It’s a transitive verb, so the structure is:

• Direct object: what you refill (l’auto)
• Complement introduced by di: what you supply (benzina)
  Thus rifornire l’auto di benzina = to fill up the car with gasoline.

Why is there an apostrophe in l’auto?

In Italian, the feminine article la elides to l’ before a vowel. So instead of la auto, you write l’auto. This elision makes pronunciation smoother.

Why do we use di before benzina and not another preposition?

With rifornire, the standard construction is rifornire [object] di [substance]. The preposition di indicates what you are supplying. Using con (with) would sound odd here; for “fill with” you’d say riempire il serbatoio con benzina, but with rifornire you stick to di benzina.

Why isn’t there an article before benzina?