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I always hear people saying 

　　　先に行ってて　which means 'go ahead'

But I don't really understand the meaning of the last て. I know it's the abbreviation of いて but if I translate it to English, I always think like this.

　　　先に行っていて - Going ahead

So anyone can explain the latter 'te' of this sentence?

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2 Answers 2

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As you said, 「行ってて」 is the colloquial contraction of 「行っていて」 and we almost always use the contracted form in informal speech.

There is, however, a fairly big difference in meaning between 「先に行って」 and 「先に行ってて」.

「先に行って」 simply means "You go first."

「先に行ってて」 means "You go first and wait for me/us." or "You go first and I/We will follow you."

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  • And would you respond 先に行っとくね or 先に行ってるね?
    – user1016
    Nov 15, 2013 at 10:31
  • @Earthling No, that is not a natural response. あとでね is.
    – user4032
    Nov 15, 2013 at 11:03
  • @ちょこれーと Depends on the situation. 先に行っとくね would generally suggest that you will meet the other guy at the destination. 先に行ってるね is more versatile in that it can mean that you will meet the other guy either halfway somewhere or at the destination. However, it might be different for Kansai. I could be wrong but I feel like 行っとくね is used in both situations in Kansai.
    – user4032
    Nov 15, 2013 at 11:12
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    @Tokyo Nagoya, would you be kind enough to explain the grammatical principles behind this construction in more depth, please?
    – yadokari
    Nov 15, 2013 at 13:01
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先に行ってて means "he/she" said he will go first. "て" means that someone said the phrase .

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  • No, the second て is not the colloquial って, but rather a contraction of いて, as explained in the other answer.
    – Earthliŋ ♦
    Sep 17, 2014 at 16:11

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