El hombre dice: «Buen provecho».

Dice is the third-person singular present indicative of decir (to say / to tell).

So:

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

In El hombre dice, the subject is el hombre, so dice means the man says.

It is also worth noticing that decir is an irregular verb. You cannot form it by simply taking a regular ending pattern from a verb like comer or vivir.

Because Spanish usually does not need subject pronouns when the subject is already clear.

In this sentence, el hombre already tells you who is speaking, so adding él would be unnecessary.

• El hombre dice... = natural
• Él dice... = possible, but only if the context already makes clear who he is
• El hombre, él dice... = usually unnatural unless you are emphasizing or contrasting

Spanish often leaves out pronouns like yo, tú, él, ella unless they are needed for clarity or emphasis.

In Spanish, singular countable nouns usually need an article or another determiner.

So:

• el hombre = the man
• un hombre = a man

Using just hombre by itself would usually sound incomplete in a sentence like this.

English sometimes allows bare nouns in places where Spanish does not, so this is a common adjustment for English speakers.

Because bueno becomes buen before a masculine singular noun.

This shortening is called apocope.

Examples:

• buen provecho
• buen día
• buen amigo

But:

• bueno = when the adjective stands alone, or not directly before a masculine singular noun
• buena comida = feminine singular
• buenos días = masculine plural

Since provecho is masculine singular, the correct form here is buen.

Provecho is a masculine singular noun.

That matters because it affects the form of the adjective before it:

• buen
  • masculine singular noun
• not bueno

You do not need to translate provecho word-for-word every time you see this expression, because Buen provecho works as a fixed phrase in Spanish.

So even if you know the overall meaning already, grammatically it is still useful to notice that:

• buen = adjective
• provecho = noun

It is both.

You can analyze it grammatically as:

• buen = adjective
• provecho = noun

But in real life, Spanish speakers mostly treat Buen provecho as a set expression used around meals.

That means learners should remember it as a whole phrase, much like English speakers remember expressions like good morning without always thinking about the grammar each time.

In standard peninsular Spanish:

• dice is pronounced roughly DEE-theh
• buen is roughly bwen
• provecho is roughly proh-BEH-choh

A few useful details:

• In most of Spain, the c in dice sounds like the th in thin
• The ch in provecho sounds like English ch in church
• The b in buen and provecho is not usually a hard English b sound in the middle of speech; it is softer

A rough full pronunciation could be:

el OM-breh DEE-theh: bwen proh-BEH-choh

Those are Spanish-style quotation marks, often called angle quotes or guillemets.

So:

• «Buen provecho» = a very standard Spanish way to show direct speech in printed text

Spanish can also use other quotation marks, especially in modern typing:

• "Buen provecho"

But « » is especially common in books, newspapers, and more formal typography.

The colon introduces the direct speech that follows.

So the structure is:

• El hombre dice: = The man says:
• «Buen provecho» = the exact words he says

This is a common and very natural punctuation pattern in Spanish, especially in written narration.

English often prefers a comma before a quotation in similar cases, but Spanish commonly uses a colon in this kind of sentence.

Yes. By itself, dice can mean:

• he says
• she says
• sometimes even it says

The verb form does not tell you the gender.

What tells you the gender here is the subject:

• El hombre dice = the man says

If it were:

• La mujer dice = the woman says

the verb would still be dice.