El hombre dice: «Buenas noches».

The man says: ‘Good night.’

Breakdown of El hombre dice: «Buenas noches».

• decir: to tell
• buenas noches: good evening; good night
• el hombre: the man

Questions & Answers about El hombre dice: «Buenas noches».

Why is it el hombre and not just hombre?

In Spanish, it is very common to use the definite article before a noun when talking about a specific person or thing.
So el hombre means the man.

If you said just hombre, it would usually sound less complete on its own, unless it were being used in a special context, such as:

• as a vocative: ¡Hombre!
• in notes, labels, or very compressed style

In a normal sentence like this, el hombre is the natural form.

Why does el mean the here? Doesn’t el sometimes mean he?

Yes, but these are two different words in writing:

• el = the (article)
• él = he (pronoun)

The difference is the accent mark:

• el hombre = the man
• él dice = he says

So in this sentence, el has no accent, which tells you it is the article the.

What does hombre mean exactly, and how is it pronounced?