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For example, current time is 10:10.

then when will the train leave?

  1. The train will leave in 10 minutes.

  2. The train will leave in 10 minutes' time.

  3. The train will leave after 10 minutes.

If the train leave at 10:20, what can we say?

Sato
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  • It was late. :D – ralph.m Dec 01 '15 at 01:22
  • It's not really clear what the question is. You can obviously just replace 10 with 20. Are you asking about which sentence represents the best usage? – ralph.m Dec 01 '15 at 01:23
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    *The train will leave in 10 minutes.* This is the best common usage - "ten minutes time" (with or without apostrophe) is needlessly redundant.. You would never say the "the train will leave after 10 minutes", but you might say (if the precise time is uncertain), "the train won't leave for at least 10 minutes.". – Cargill Dec 01 '15 at 01:27
  • The proposed duplicate doesn't address #2 of this question. – Nathaniel is protesting Dec 01 '15 at 13:30
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    @Nathaniel - No, but there are probably 6 other duplicates that do. – Hot Licks Dec 01 '15 at 17:53

1 Answers1

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In answer to the title's What is the difference:

The train will leave in 10 minutes.

Ten minutes from now, the train will leave.

The train will leave in 10 minutes' time.

Same as above. The extra word "time" is redundant, really, unless the audience doesn't know that minutes are a unit of time.

The train will leave after 10 minutes.

This one is a bit less clear. It implies that there will be some event, at some time, and ten minutes after that the train will leave.

ralph.m
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