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Il medico finisce l'ecografia e la risonanza in un'ora.

Il medico finisce l'ecografia e la risonanza in un'ora.
The doctor finishes the ultrasound and the MRI in an hour.
From Lesson 390:Time duration vs. time elapsed (in vs. tra)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Il medico finisce l'ecografia e la risonanza in un'ora.

Why does this sentence use in un'ora instead of tra un'ora?
In Italian, in is used to express the duration or time required to complete an action. Here, the doctor spends one hour actually doing the ultrasound and MRI. If the sentence used tra un'ora or fra un'ora, it would mean the doctor will start the procedures an hour from now.
Is risonanza the standard word for MRI, or is it short for something else?
The full medical term is risonanza magnetica (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). However, in everyday conversation and medical settings, Italians commonly shorten it to just la risonanza, exactly as seen in this sentence.
Why does un'ora have an apostrophe here? I thought un didn't use one.
As a quick refresher, the indefinite article una drops its final a and takes an apostrophe before feminine nouns starting with a vowel, like ora. The masculine article un never takes an apostrophe (for example, un ospedale), which is why learners often mix them up.
Since the sentence says the doctor finishes "in an hour," why doesn't it use the future tense (finirà)?
In Italian, the present tense (finisce) is very often used to talk about events happening in the near future, as long as there is a time marker like in un'ora to make the context clear. You could absolutely say finirà, but the present tense is extremely common and sounds very natural here.

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