(do something) in (a length of time)

When someone does something quickly, you say that they did it "in ___ hours" or "in ___ minutes", etc. For example:

I'll have dinner ready in ten minutes.

We designed and built the whole site in less than a week.

On the other hand, when something is not done quickly, you say that it "takes ___ hours to (do it)":

It took me over 9 hours to get there.

This phrase appears in these lessons: