Learn Italian: La nascita è tra un mese.

When talking about how far in the future a point in time is (like 'in a month from now'), Italian uses tra or fra. If you used in and said in un mese, it would mean that an action takes a whole month to complete, rather than happening a month in the future.

Could I use fra instead of tra in this sentence?

Yes! tra and fra mean exactly the same thing. You can say La nascita è fra un mese and it is perfectly correct. Italians just choose whichever one sounds better with the surrounding words to avoid repeating sounds.

Can I use a future tense verb here instead of the present tense è?

Yes, you could say La nascita sarà tra un mese (The birth will be in a month). However, just like in English, Italians frequently use the present tense for scheduled or very certain future events.

nascita looks a lot like the verb for 'to be born'. Are they related?

Exactly! la nascita is the noun for 'the birth', and it comes from the verb nascere (to be born). Remember that the sci in nascita makes a soft sound, so it is pronounced 'nah-shee-tah'.