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El carro necesita gasolina.

El carro necesita gasolina.
The car needs gasoline.
From Lesson 50:Very vs. a lot (muy, mucho)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of El carro necesita gasolina.

el carro
the car
necesitar
to need
la gasolina
the gasoline

Questions & Answers about El carro necesita gasolina.

Why do we use carro instead of coche here?
In Latin American Spanish, people usually say carro or auto for 'car.' The word coche is understood everywhere, but it is much more commonly used in Spain. In fact, in many parts of Latin America, un coche usually refers to a baby stroller!
Why isn't there an article before gasolina?
Just like in English, when you talk about an unspecified amount of an uncountable thing (like gasoline, water, or rice), you leave out the article. Since the car needs an unspecified amount of gas, we just say necesita gasolina instead of necesita la gasolina.
How does the verb ending in necesita work here?
Necesita comes from the regular verb necesitar (to need). Because the subject doing the action is el carro (an 'it'), we use the third-person singular ending. For regular -ar verbs, you drop the -ar and add -a.
How would I say the car needs 'a lot' of gasoline? Would I use muy or mucho?
You would use mucha and say El carro necesita mucha gasolina. You use mucho (and its matching forms like mucha) when talking about amounts of a noun. Because gasolina is a feminine noun, you use mucha. You only use muy (very) with descriptive words, like if the car is muy rápido (very fast).

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