La cámara de aire necesita un parche.

to need

Breakdown of La cámara de aire necesita un parche.

• un: a
• la cámara de aire: the bicycle inner tube
• el parche: the patch for an inner tube

Questions & Answers about La cámara de aire necesita un parche.

What does cámara de aire mean literally, and why is it used here?

Literally, cámara de aire means air chamber. In everyday Spanish, especially in contexts involving bicycles, motorcycles, or tires, it commonly refers to an inner tube.

So in this sentence, La cámara de aire necesita un parche means that the inner tube has a puncture or hole and needs to be repaired with a patch.

Why is it la cámara and not el cámara?

Because cámara is a feminine noun in Spanish, so it takes the feminine article la.

• la cámara
• una cámara

Even though some nouns ending in -a are masculine, cámara is feminine.

Why does Spanish say de aire instead of using an adjective, like air tube in English?

Spanish often uses the structure noun + de + noun where English often uses a noun as an adjective.

So:

• cámara de aire = literally chamber of air
• natural English translation = inner tube

This pattern is very common in Spanish:

• zapatos de cuero = leather shoes
• botella de agua = water bottle
• gafas de sol = sunglasses