Complex sentence with てっていうのは

Question

I struggle a lot to understand this sentence. First, can you explain why there is the difference between the first part “ ていてっていう” and the second part with just “てっていう”. Then, for the second sentence can you explain me why it use “してっていう” and not “するっていう“ ?

違うの。横になっていてっていうのはねてっていうこと。 そういう風にする時は、左を下にしてっていうからね。

Answer 1

The sentence would be a lot easier to understand if quotation marks are added:

違うの。「横になっていて^A」って^Bいうのは「ねて^A」って^Bいうこと。 そういう風にする時は、「左を下にして^A」って^Bいうからね。

No, saying "Yoko ni natte ite" means "Please lie down". When (I ask you to) do like that, I'd say "Please lie on your left side", okay?

• The three te-forms (A) at the end of each quote are the te-form for requests.
• As this sentence suggests, 横になる is a set phrase that usually means "to lie down", not "to lie on one's side". However, if you say 横になって to someone who is already lying down, it might mean "Lie on your side".
• The three って (B) right after the quotes are colloquial quotation markers (≈ と). In case you don't know ということだ yet, please read this.
• "横になっていて" by itself is in the teiru form (progressive form). "横になって" means "(Please) lie down" (you're asking to take this position), whereas "横になっていて" means "(Please) stay lying down" (you're asking to keep this position). Only the first quote uses this form, which is indeed a little inconsistent. However, the issue here is the meaning of the verb itself, not the difference in aspect, so the speaker omitted the teiru form in the remaining two quotes for concise explanation. But they could have said "ねていて" and "左を下にしていて", too.