El chico dice «Con permiso» y pasa.

In Spanish, it is very common to use an article with a noun when talking about a specific person or thing.

• el chico = the boy
• chico by itself would usually sound incomplete in this kind of sentence

So El chico dice... is the natural way to say The boy says...

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed.

• dice already shows that the subject is he/she/it
• pasa also shows he/she/it

Because El chico is already mentioned, adding él would usually be unnecessary.

So Spanish prefers:

• El chico dice... y pasa.

rather than:

• El chico él dice...

Dice is the present tense of decir.

• dice = he says / she says
• dijo = he said / she said

This sentence is simply written in the present:

• El chico dice... = The boy says...

If you wanted it in the past, you could say:

• El chico dijo “Con permiso” y pasó.

Con permiso is a fixed polite expression. In Spain, it is commonly used when someone wants to:

• get past another person
• enter or leave politely
• interrupt briefly in a respectful way

It often corresponds to English expressions like:

• Excuse me
• If you’ll excuse me
• May I get by?

Literally, con permiso means something like with permission, but you should learn it as a set phrase.

Because it is written as direct speech after dice.

The sentence gives the boy’s exact words:

• El chico dice «Con permiso» y pasa.

Since Con permiso begins the quoted speech, the first word is capitalized, just as in English.

Those are called angle quotes or Spanish quotation marks.

In Spanish, especially in published writing, it is very common to write direct speech with:

• « ... »

instead of:

• " ... "

Both styles may be seen, but «Con permiso» is very standard in Spanish typography.

Because this is direct speech, not reported speech.

• El chico dice «Con permiso» = The boy says Con permiso
  → exact words

But with reported speech, Spanish often uses que:

• El chico dice que tiene prisa.
  = The boy says that he is in a hurry.

So:

• dice + exact words → no que
• dice que + clause → reported statement

Here pasa comes from pasar, and it means something like:

• goes past
• passes by
• moves through

In this context, the idea is that the boy says Con permiso and then physically goes by someone or moves ahead.

So pasar does not always mean just to happen. It can also mean to pass or to go through/by.

Spanish often leaves some details unstated when the context is clear.

Here, pasa by itself is enough to suggest:

• he gets by
• he moves past
• he passes through

You could add more detail in other sentences, for example:

• pasa por la puerta = he goes through the door
• pasa entre la gente = he goes through the crowd

But in this sentence, pasa alone sounds natural.

In standard Spain Spanish:

• chico → CHEE-ko
• dice → roughly DEE-theh in much of Spain

A few details:

• ch sounds like English ch
• c before e or i is often pronounced like th in much of Spain
• permiso has the stress on -mi-: per-MEE-so
• pasa has the stress on the first syllable: PA-sa

So the whole sentence in Spain might sound roughly like:

• El CHEE-ko DEE-theh con per-MEE-so ee PA-sa

Not always. Chico can mean:

• boy
• lad
• guy
• young man

depending on context.

In this sentence, boy is a natural translation, but in other situations chico can be less specifically about age and more like guy or young man.

Y simply means and.

It connects the two actions:

• dice «Con permiso»
• pasa

So the structure is:

• The boy says “Excuse me” and passes/goes by.

It links two verbs with the same subject: El chico.