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No, he is not saying thank you. The verb 'parler' is not transitive. Translation is 'he is talking, thank you'.
This does not translate to "He says, thank you!" that would have been "Il dit, merci!"
Yeah, I thought he was saying to someone else to shut it because another person was speaking lol
I agree, I don't think this is correct. I think it should be "Il dit". You do not say "He speaks, thank you".
Parler can be transitive and intransitive. In the transitive case you are discussing one's ability to "speak" or a subject of which you are speaking.
"Elle parle très bien (le) français." - is a transitive sentence.
I don't think this lesson applies though. I would agree with "Il dit, merci !"
Agreed on the dual transitive/intransitive possibilities of verb " parler". However, here, with the comma after "il parle", the person saying "merci" is not the one who speaks. if you want to mean "he says thank you", you don't use a comma and you say "il dit merci" or "il dit : merci". And the verb is "dire", not "parler".
That would only make sense if it translated as <he says "thank you">, i.e., if the speaker was reporting what someone else was saying, but it translates as <he is speaking, thank you>.
