El señor dijo: «Bienvenido».

Because señor here is being used as a normal noun, so Spanish needs the definite article el: El señor = the man / the gentleman / the gentleman.

If you were directly addressing someone, you could say just señor, as in Sí, señor. But in this sentence, El señor is the subject of the verb.

A good rough guide is seh-NYOR.

A few details:

• ñ sounds like ny in canyon
• the stress is on the last syllable: se-ÑOR
• the final r is a light tap, not the stronger rolled sound of rr

So it is not pronounced like English senior.

Ñ is a separate letter in Spanish, not just an n with a mark on it.

It changes the sound:

• n = regular n
• ñ = a ny sound

So señor and senor would not sound the same. In correct Spanish spelling, the word is señor.

Dijo is the preterite form of decir in the third person singular.

That means:

• decir = to say
• dijo = he said / she said

The preterite is used because the act of speaking is presented as a completed event in the past.

Yes. It comes from decir, but its preterite stem changes.

The preterite forms are:

• dije
• dijiste
• dijo
• dijimos
• dijisteis
• dijeron

So this is not a regular verb pattern.

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

The ending in dijo already tells you it is he/she singular, so él is usually unnecessary. Spanish adds pronouns mainly for:

• emphasis
• contrast
• avoiding ambiguity

So El señor dijo is perfectly natural without él.

The colon introduces direct speech: the exact words the man said.

After verbs like dijo, Spanish often uses a colon before a quotation:

• El señor dijo: «Bienvenido».

This is very normal in Spanish writing. In English, learners are often more used to a comma before a quote, but the Spanish colon here is standard.

These are called guillemets or angle quotation marks.

They are traditional and very common in Spanish, especially in Spain. You may also see “ ”, but « » are fully standard and often preferred in published Spanish texts.

Because it is the first word of the quoted speech.

When Spanish introduces a complete piece of direct speech after a colon, that quoted speech often begins with a capital letter:

• El señor dijo: «Bienvenido».

So the capital B is normal here.

Because bienvenido agrees with the person being welcomed.

Here it is:

• masculine singular: Bienvenido

Other possibilities would be:

• Bienvenida = to one woman
• Bienvenidos = to more than one person, or to a mixed group in traditional grammar
• Bienvenidas = to a group of women

So the form changes to match who is being addressed.

It is originally an adjective, but it is also commonly used as a greeting or formula.

So in this sentence it functions like a one-word welcome. Spanish often uses adjectives this way in set expressions.

Because this sentence gives the speaker’s exact words, so it uses direct speech.

• Direct speech: El señor dijo: «Bienvenido».

If you used que, you would be changing it into indirect speech, and Spanish would normally reformulate the message rather than keep the exact one-word quote. For example, you might say something like El señor le dio la bienvenida instead.

Because in Spanish, final punctuation is not automatically placed inside quotation marks the way it often is in American English.

Here, the full stop closes the whole sentence, so it comes after the closing guillemet:

• «Bienvenido».

If the quoted word had its own exclamation marks, those would stay inside:

• El señor dijo: «¡Bienvenido!».

It could, and very often it would.

• «Bienvenido» sounds neutral or matter-of-fact
• «¡Bienvenido!» sounds more expressive or enthusiastic

So the version without exclamation marks is not wrong; it just gives a calmer tone.