In a method and apparatus for generating a magnetic resonance image of a contiguous region of a human body on the basis of partial parallel acquisition (PPA) by excitation of nuclear spins and measurement of radio-frequency signals indicating the excited spins, the spin excitation is implemented in steps with measurement of an RF response signal simultaneously in each of a number of N component coils. A number of response signals thus are acquired that, for each component coil, form an incomplete data set (40) of acquired RF signals. Additional acquired calibration data points exist for each incomplete data set. The N incomplete data sets are acquired to a subset of M reduced, incomplete data sets on the basis of an N.times.M reduction matrix, so that M reduced, incomplete data sets are obtained, M complete data sets are formed on the basis of an N.times.M reconstruction matrix with the non-measured lines of the M reduced, incomplete data sets being reconstructed from all N incomplete data sets. A spatial transformation of the completed reduced data sets is then implemented in order to form a complete image data set from each completed, reduced data set.