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Why 'alone' and 'together' change their endings in Spanish

In English, words like alone, together and barefoot never change. A man walks alone, two women walk alone, a whole class walks alone. In Spanish the equivalent words are adjectives, and they agree with the people they describe. One woman travels sola, a group of men travels solos, a family eats junta, and children run descalzos.

English speakers trip over this because these words come right after a verb, exactly where English puts adverbs. It feels as if they should describe the action and stay fixed. In Spanish, though, they describe the person doing the action, so they take the same -o, -a, -os, -as endings as any other adjective.

Word list
juntafA1 together fem. sg.: la familia viaja junta juntasfA1 together fem. pl.: trabajamos juntas juntoA1 together masc. sg.: el grupo sigue junto juntosmA1 together masc. or mixed pl.: trabajamos juntos dormidomA2 asleep masc. sg.: el niño se quedó dormido muertomA2 dead masc. sg.: el pez llegó muerto solomA2 alone masc. sg.: él vive solo solomA2 lonely masc. sg.: él se siente solo vivomA2 alive masc. sg.: el gato llegó vivo despiertomB1 awake masc. sg.: él se quedó despierto toda la noche descalzoB2 barefoot masc. sg.: él camina descalzo desnudomB2 naked masc. sg.: el bebé duerme desnudo
How it works

Ask yourself who is alone, together or barefoot. The answer is always a person or a group, never the action itself. So the word matches that person or group in gender and number:

  • masculine singular: solo, descalzo
  • feminine singular: sola, descalza
  • masculine or mixed plural: solos, descalzos
  • feminine plural: solas, descalzas

The word usually comes after the verb, but it still points back to the subject. When the subject is ellas, nosotras or two sisters, you need the feminine plural.

Las dos hermanas viajaron juntas, pero volvieron solas.
(The two sisters traveled together but came back alone.)

A quick rule of thumb: if you could replace the word with "who was alone" or "who were barefoot", it describes a person, and it must agree.

The words
Alone and lonely

Solo means "alone, by oneself". The same word also means "lonely" when you talk about feelings. Both meanings agree.

Mi abuelo vive solo.
(My grandfather lives alone.)
Mi hermana se siente muy sola en la ciudad.
(My sister feels very lonely in the city.)
Together

"Together" is juntos for a masculine or mixed group and juntas for an all-female group. With a singular group word like la familia or el grupo, you use the singular junta or junto.

Mis amigos y yo estudiamos juntos.
(My friends and I study together.)
La familia siempre cena junta los domingos.
(The family always has dinner together on Sundays.)
Barefoot, naked, alive

Descalzo, desnudo and vivo work the same way: they describe the state someone is in while doing something.

Ana camina descalza por la casa.
(Ana walks barefoot around the house.)
Los niños juegan descalzos en la playa.
(The children play barefoot on the beach.)
El bebé duerme desnudo cuando hace calor.
(The baby sleeps naked when it's hot.)
Por suerte, todos llegaron vivos.
(Luckily, everyone arrived alive.)

The greeting bienvenido follows the same logic: you welcome a group of women with ¡Bienvenidas!

Watch out

The typical mistake is to treat these words like English adverbs and use solo or juntos for everyone. Ellas viajan solo sounds wrong for "they travel alone". Say ellas viajan solas.

A few look-alikes really are invariable, because they do not describe a person:

  • solo meaning "only" never changes.
  • junto a means "next to" and never changes either.
  • a solas, another way to say "alone, in private", always keeps this form.
  • medio meaning "half, partly" in front of an adjective stays the same.
Solo tengo dos hermanas.
(I only have two sisters.)
Ella vive junto al parque.
(She lives next to the park.)
Quiero hablar con ella a solas.
(I want to talk to her alone.)
Las chicas estaban medio dormidas.
(The girls were half asleep.)

Notice that in the last example dormidas still agrees, because it describes the girls. Only medio stays fixed.

Summary

When a word after the verb tells you what state the people are in, such as alone, together, barefoot, naked or alive, it is an adjective in Spanish and must match them: solo, sola, solos, solas. Only words that do not describe a person, like solo meaning "only", junto a and a solas, stay the same.