Learn Italian: Dopo aver stampato il referto, lo leggerò in due minuti. - After printing the medical report, I will read it in two minutes.

Dopo aver stampato il referto, lo leggerò in due minuti.

After printing the medical report, I will read it in two minutes.

Breakdown of Dopo aver stampato il referto, lo leggerò in due minuti.

Questions & Answers about Dopo aver stampato il referto, lo leggerò in due minuti.

Why does the sentence use in due minuti instead of tra due minuti?

In Italian, in is used to express the amount of time it takes to complete an action. So in due minuti means the reading itself will take two minutes to finish. If you used tra or fra, the sentence would mean that you will start reading it two minutes from now.

Why is it Dopo aver stampato instead of just Dopo stampando for "After printing"?

Italian does not use the gerund like stampando after prepositions. To express "after doing something", you must use dopo followed by the past infinitive. You form this with the infinitive of the helper verb (avere or essere) plus the past participle, which gives us dopo aver stampato.

Why is the final vowel dropped in aver stampato instead of saying avere stampato?

Dropping the final e of an infinitive before a word starting with a consonant is an optional but very common habit in Italian to make the sentence flow faster. Both aver stampato and avere stampato are perfectly correct, but you will hear the shortened version often.

Can I use referto to talk about a business or school report?