Dice is the third person singular present tense of decir.
So:
Yes, Spanish could say Dice: «Adelante» if the subject is already clear from context.
Spanish often leaves out subjects because the verb ending already gives information about the person and number.
But in this sentence, el chico is included because:
So both are possible, but El chico dice: «Adelante» is more explicit.
Here adelante is an expression used on its own, not a full sentence with a verb stated explicitly.
Depending on context, adelante can mean things like:
It literally relates to the idea of forward or ahead, but in real use it often works as a set phrase.
Functionally, yes, it often works like a command or invitation, but grammatically it is not a regular imperative verb form like pasa or entre.
It is more like a fixed adverbial expression that speakers use to encourage movement or action.
That is why it can sound natural in several situations:
So it behaves like a command in meaning, even though its grammar is a bit different.
The colon introduces the exact words the boy says.
So:
This is similar to English writing like:
Spanish commonly uses a colon before direct speech, especially in narrative or formal writing.
Those are called angle quotes or guillemets.
In Spain, they are a traditional and very common way to mark direct speech in writing:
You may also see “Adelante” in some texts, especially depending on style, publisher, or digital formatting, but « » is very standard in Spain.
So this is mainly a punctuation convention, not a change in meaning.
Chico is pronounced approximately CHEE-koh.
Breakdown:
The ch sound is like English ch in cheese.
So:
Not here.
It appears after a colon and inside quotation marks as a single spoken word, so it stays lowercase:
You would only capitalize it if normal capitalization rules required it, for example at the beginning of a sentence.
This follows Spanish punctuation style.
In Spanish, the final punctuation often belongs to the main sentence rather than being automatically placed inside the quotation marks. So you get:
This differs from standard English, where punctuation often goes inside quotation marks more regularly.
So the placement here is normal for Spanish typography.