I came across this Japanese sentence:

> 男の子の顔は父親より母親ににるという話を聞いた。

But am not really sure about its meaning in English.

My translation will be "The man heard that his face resembles his mother more
than his father".

But then, I don't quite understand why and how いう話 is being used here. I know
that "どういう意味ですか" means "what does it mean" in English. But I can't seem to
understand how いう is applied in both sentences. Can someone help me here?
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translation
How is という used in 「男の子の顔は父親より母親ににるという話を聞いた」?
という is a very common construction which has many meanings and causes me
endless confusion. But in this case it's straightforward.

という in this context simply means "saying that".

> xxxという話  
>  story/conversation saying that xxx

> I heard a story saying that boys' faces resemble their mother rather than
> their father.
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“という(話、こと)” is one of the most frequently used turn of Japanese phrases you
come across everyday, and its verbatim translation is “the story to the effect
of ….” You can simply apply a relative pronoun, “that” to “という〈話、こと〉”

It can be used as in the following examples:

>   * 彼、会社を辞めるって **いう** 話、本当かい？- Is it true **that** he is leaving the
> company?
>
>   * 彼がそんなに金に困っていた **という話** 、初めて聞いたよ。信じられない - I heard it for the first time
> **that** he's been in such a financial trouble. It's incredible.
>
>   * 今度の人事異動で、田中が製品開発マネージャーに抜擢される **という** 話だ – I heard **that** Tanaka is
> gonna be promoted to the Product Development Manager in the next personnel
> changes.
>
>   * **そういう話** は聞きたくない – I don’t want to hear **that kinds of story.**
>
>   * そう **いう** ことだ。これ以上は言うまい - **That’s it**. I won’t say any more.
>
>   * あの会社は潰れる **という** 噂が飛んでいる - The word is **that** that company is gonna be
> bankrupt.
>
>   * 工場を来年３月末までに福島に移転させる **という趣旨** の通知を受け取った - We received a notice **to the
> effect** **that** the company will relocate the plant to Fukushima by the
> end of March next year.
>
>   * 要するに、僕の話は聞けない **ということ** だね - In short, you're saying that you don't
> agree with me, hah?
>
>   * いったい何 **と言うことだ** ！ - What is this? How could it be?
>
>
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