El señor dijo adiós.

In Spanish, it is very normal to use the definite article with titles or polite nouns when talking about someone.

So el señor can mean things like:

• the gentleman
• the man
• the señor / Mr. in some contexts

This is different from English, where we usually would not say the Mr.

But when speaking to the person directly, Spanish usually drops the article:

• Señor, venga aquí. = Sir, come here.

So in El señor dijo adiós, the speaker is referring to the man, not addressing him.

Señor is a polite word for an adult man. Depending on context, it can feel like:

• sir
• gentleman
• man
• Mr.

If it stands alone, as in this sentence, it often means the gentleman or the man in a polite or formal way.

If it comes before a surname, it is more clearly Mr.:

• el señor García = Mr. García

Dijo is the preterite tense, third person singular, from the verb decir.

That means it refers to a completed action in the past:

• dijo = he said / she said / it said

In this sentence, it means the action happened as a single completed event: the man said goodbye.

It comes from decir = to say / to tell.

The preterite of decir is irregular, so the forms do not keep the normal dec- stem. Instead, they use dij-:

• dije = I said
• dijiste = you said
• dijo = he/she said
• dijimos = we said
• dijisteis = you all said
• dijeron = they said

So dijo may look surprising at first, but it is just an irregular past form you need to learn as a set.

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

Here, dijo already means he/she said, so él is not necessary.

Since the sentence already has El señor, the subject is perfectly clear:

• El señor dijo adiós.

You could say Él dijo adiós, but that would usually be used only when the subject is already understood or when you want emphasis or contrast:

• Ella no habló; él dijo adiós.

Here, adiós is the word that was said. After decir, it works like the content of the speech.

So dijo adiós is a very common expression meaning:

• said goodbye

You can think of it as similar to English expressions like:

• say hello
• say thanks
• say goodbye

In Spanish, this is a fixed and natural combination.

This is the most neutral Spanish word order:

• subject
  • verb
    • what was said

So:

• El señor = subject
• dijo = verb
• adiós = what he said

Spanish word order is more flexible than English, but this version is the plain, standard one.

Other orders are possible for emphasis or style, but they sound less neutral:

• Adiós dijo el señor. — more literary or dramatic

For a learner, El señor dijo adiós is the best basic pattern.

The ñ is a separate letter in Spanish. It is not the same as n.

In señor, ñ sounds roughly like ny in canyon, but as one smooth consonant:

• se-ñor ≈ seh-NYOR

A rough pronunciation of señor is:

• seh-NYOR

The stress is on the second syllable: -ñor.

The accent mark in adiós shows the stress falls on the last syllable:

• a-DIÓS

Spanish stress rules say that words ending in a vowel, n, or s are usually stressed on the second-to-last syllable. Since adiós ends in s but is stressed on the last syllable, it needs a written accent.

Dijo does not need an accent mark because its stress already follows the normal rule:

• DI-jo

It ends in a vowel, and the stress is on the second-to-last syllable, so no written accent is needed.

In standard Spain Spanish, dijo is pronounced roughly like:

• DEE-ho

But the j is not an English h exactly. It is a stronger, raspier sound made further back in the mouth, similar to the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach.

So:

• dijo ≈ DEE-kho / DEE-ho, depending on how close you want to get

Also, in natural speech, the d can be a bit softer than in English.

Usually, no. In normal Spanish, señor is lowercase unless there is a special reason.

So this is correct:

• El señor dijo adiós.

You would capitalize it if it begins the sentence, and you may also see abbreviations like:

• Sr. = señor

English capitalizes titles more often than Spanish does, so this is something English speakers often need to get used to.

Yes, but it is not exactly the same structure.

• El señor dijo adiós. = The man said goodbye.
• El señor se despidió. = The man said goodbye / took his leave.

Both are natural, but se despidió focuses more on the act of taking leave, while dijo adiós focuses more literally on the words spoken.

So both can work, but the original sentence is completely normal and very common.