El chico dice: «Hasta luego».

Chico usually means boy or young guy. In Spain, it can also be used quite broadly for a male person, depending on context.

A few rough equivalents:

• chico = boy / lad / young guy
• niño = child / little boy

So chico does not always mean a small child. It often suggests a young male, but the exact age depends on context.

In Spanish, singular countable nouns usually need a determiner such as:

• el = the
• un = a

So el chico means the boy, and that is the normal full subject.

Just chico dice would sound incomplete in standard Spanish. Spanish often drops subject pronouns like él, but not normally articles before common nouns.

Because the subject is already given: el chico.

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed. Since el chico already tells us who is speaking, adding él would usually be unnecessary.

So:

• El chico dice = normal
• Él dice = he says
• El chico él dice = not normal in this context

Dice is the third-person singular present tense of decir.

The subject is el chico, which is:

• third person
• singular

So the verb must match:

• yo digo = I say
• tú dices = you say
• él/ella dice = he/she says

That is why the sentence uses dice.

Yes. Decir is irregular.

Some common present-tense forms are:

• yo digo
• tú dices
• él/ella dice
• nosotros decimos
• vosotros decís
• ellos dicen

You can see two kinds of irregularity:

• yo digo has -go
• several forms change e → i, as in dices, dice, dicen

So dice is not formed in a completely regular way.

Literally, hasta luego means until later.

In natural English, it is often translated as:

• see you later
• bye for now

It is one of the most common ways to say goodbye in Spanish.

Yes. Very often.

Just like English speakers may say see you later without meaning it literally, Spanish speakers often use hasta luego as a normal goodbye.

So it does not always mean there is a real plan to meet again later that day. It is often just a friendly, everyday farewell.

It is generally neutral to mildly informal and very common in everyday speech.

In Spain, it works well in many normal situations:

• with friends
• with classmates
• with coworkers
• in shops and casual service situations

It is usually friendly and natural. It is not extremely formal, but it is not rude or slangy either.

Those are Spanish-style angle quotation marks, often called guillemets in English.

In Spain, they are common in printed or formal writing:

• «Hasta luego»

You may also see:

• "Hasta luego"

Both can appear, but « » are especially traditional in Spanish publishing.

The colon introduces the exact words being said.

So:

• El chico dice: = The boy says:
• «Hasta luego» = the actual speech

This is a normal way to introduce direct speech in Spanish writing.

Because it begins the quoted utterance.

Even though the expression is normally written as hasta luego in the middle of a sentence, it is capitalized here because it starts a quoted sentence or spoken line:

• Dice: «Hasta luego».

If it appeared inside a sentence without starting the quotation, it would usually be lowercase.

A simple Spain pronunciation guide would be:

• El chico ≈ el CHEE-ko
• dice ≈ DEE-theh in most of Spain
• hasta luego ≈ AH-sta LWE-go

A few useful notes:

• h in hasta is silent
• ch in chico sounds like English ch
• in most of Spain, c before e/i sounds like the th in think, so dice sounds like DEE-theh
• luego begins with a lw sound: LWE-go

In much of Latin America, dice would sound more like DEE-seh, but for Spain DEE-theh is the usual reference pronunciation.