Breakdown of Il professore va in pensione tra due anni.
l'anno
the year (m)
in
in / made of (material)
due
two
andare
to go / to be fine / to work out
il professore
the professor
la pensione
the retirement
tra
in (after a period of time)
Questions & Answers about Il professore va in pensione tra due anni.
Why is the present tense va used if this happens in the future?
In Italian, you can often use the present tense for future events if they are planned or certain, especially when there is a clear time phrase like tra due anni to show when it will happen. You could also use the future tense andrà, but the present tense is very common and sounds natural here.
The lesson is about time prepositions. Does tra mean 'in' here?
Could I use fra instead of tra in this sentence?
Absolutely. The prepositions tra and fra mean exactly the same thing. Italians choose between them mostly to avoid repeating sounds. For example, fra fratelli sounds repetitive, so they would say tra fratelli. Here, tra due anni and fra due anni are both perfectly fine.
How does the phrase for 'retiring' work here?
Why is it just in pensione and not combined with an article like nella pensione?
With many states of being or common destinations, Italian uses the simple preposition in without a definite article. You have probably seen this before in phrases like in vacanza (on vacation) or in banca (to the bank).
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