El chico oye: «¡Felicidades!»

In Spanish, it is very common to use the definite article with nouns: el chico = the boy.

You usually need an article unless there is some other determiner already there, such as:

• un chico = a boy
• mi chico = my boy
• este chico = this boy

Saying just chico by itself would usually not work here as a normal subject in a full sentence.

Both verbs relate to hearing, but they are not exactly the same:

• oír = to hear
• escuchar = to listen

So El chico oye means the boy hears something.
If you said El chico escucha, it would suggest that he is listening more actively or intentionally.

In many contexts the difference is similar to English hear vs listen.

Oye is the third-person singular present tense of oír:

• yo oigo = I hear
• tú oyes = you hear
• él/ella oye = he/she hears

Here it matches el chico, which is third-person singular.

Yes. Oír is irregular.

Some common present-tense forms are:

• yo oigo
• tú oyes
• él/ella oye
• nosotros oímos
• vosotros oís
• ellos/ellas oyen

You can see changes in the stem:

• oí- becomes oig- in yo oigo
• oí- becomes oy- in several other forms, like oye

So oye is not formed in a fully regular way.

The colon introduces the exact words that are heard:

El chico oye: «¡Felicidades!»

It works like saying:

• The boy hears: Congratulations!

In Spanish, a colon can introduce direct speech or quoted material. It is a neat written way to show what comes next.

These are called angle quotes or guillemets. They are commonly used in Spanish typography, especially in published writing in Spain:

• «¡Felicidades!»

You may also see ordinary quotation marks, especially in digital or informal writing:

• "¡Felicidades!"

Both can appear, but « » are very traditional and standard in Spanish print style.

Spanish uses two exclamation marks:

• opening: ¡
• closing: !

So exclamations are written like this:

• ¡Hola!
• ¡Qué bien!
• ¡Felicidades!

This is standard punctuation in Spanish. English only uses the closing mark, but Spanish uses both.

Felicidades is the normal Spanish expression for congratulations.

It is grammatically plural, just like English congratulations is also plural in form. You do not normally say singular felicidad to congratulate someone.

So when someone says:

• ¡Felicidades!

they are giving congratulations in the usual fixed expression.

In Spain Spanish, oye is pronounced approximately OH-yeh.

A rough guide:

• o like the o in not or a short pure o
• y here sounds like the consonant sound in English yes
• e like eh

So: OH-yeh

Also, the stress falls on the first syllable: O-ye.

A rough pronunciation in Spain Spanish is:

feh-lee-see-DAH-thes

Notes for Spain:

• c before i sounds like th in much of Spain
• the stress is on da: fe-li-ci-DA-des

If you are learning Spain Spanish, that th sound is expected in words like felicidades.

Not always. Chico can mean:

• boy
• lad
• young guy
• kid

It depends on context. Sometimes chico is simply a general word for a young male person, not necessarily a small child.

So el chico is often the boy, but in other contexts it could be the young man or the kid.

Yes. oye can also be the informal command form of oír, as in:

• Oye, ven aquí. = Listen / Hey, come here.

But in this sentence, oye is clearly a present-tense verb meaning he hears, because the subject El chico comes right before it:

• El chico oye...

So here it is not a command.