自動車

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: The spelling is 自動車, read じどうしゃ, and it combines 自動, meaning self-propelled or automatic, with 車, meaning vehicle.
• Basic usage: 自動車 is an automobile or car powered by an engine or motor to carry people or goods on roads.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• A maintained vehicle and a means of transport
  • Both examples use the form 自動車. The first is a particular old car being cared for; the second presents a car as the means of reaching town across a bridge.
• Care for an old car and a ten-minute trip over a bridge
  • 父は古い自動車を大切に手入れしている。 — My father carefully maintains his old car.
  • 自動車で橋を渡ると町まで十分で着く。 — It takes ten minutes to reach town by car across the bridge.