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Why 'together' and 'alone' change form in Portuguese

In English, words like alone, together and barefoot never change. She travels alone, they travel alone. In Portuguese, the matching words describe the people doing the action, not the action itself. So they behave like adjectives and agree with the subject in gender and number: ela viaja sozinha, eles viajam sozinhos.

This catches English speakers because the words feel like adverbs. It is tempting to say elas trabalham junto or as meninas andam descalço, but Portuguese wants juntas and descalças. The same goes for só (alone), nu (naked), bêbado (drunk) and separado (separate).

Word list
juntaA1 together a família ficou junta juntasfA1 together elas caminharam juntas juntoA1 together o grupo permanece junto juntosmA1 together trabalhamos juntos sóA2 alone ficaram sós sóA2 lonely ficaram sós sozinhomA2 alone ela viaja sozinha sozinhomA2 lonely voltaram sozinhas acordadomB1 awake ficaram acordados até tarde bêbadomB1 drunk voltaram bêbados da festa caladomB1 silent elas ouviram caladas quietomB1 silent as meninas ficaram quietas separadomB1 separate vivem separados descalçoB2 barefoot ela anda descalça despidomB2 naked ela estava despida embriagadomB2 drunk saíram embriagados numB2 naked a mulher aparece nua peladomB2 naked nadaram pelados
How it works

Ask yourself one question: does the word say something about who is doing it or about how it is done? Traveling alone means the travelers are alone. Walking barefoot means the walkers have bare feet. Because the word describes a person, it takes that person's gender and number:

  • masculine singular: sozinho, junto, descalço
  • feminine singular: sozinha, junta, descalça
  • masculine or mixed plural: sozinhos, juntos, descalços
  • feminine plural: sozinhas, juntas, descalças

The word usually comes after the verb, often at the end of the sentence. That position makes it look like an adverb. Look back at the subject instead, and match it.

As meninas viajaram sozinhas.
(The girls traveled alone.)
Elas caminharam juntas e descalças pela praia.
(They walked together and barefoot along the beach.)
The words
Together

Junto often works as an adverb, but when it describes the participants it has four forms: junto, junta, juntos and juntas. A mixed group of men and women takes juntos. A singular collective noun such as o grupo or a família takes the singular.

Ana e Pedro trabalham juntos há dez anos.
(Ana and Pedro have worked together for ten years.)
A família inteira ficou junta no Natal.
(The whole family stayed together at Christmas.)
Alone

Sozinho is the everyday word, with the forms sozinha, sozinhos and sozinhas. It can mean simply "by oneself" or carry a feeling of loneliness. Só means the same when used this way, and it only changes for number: só in the singular, sós in the plural, for both genders.

Minha avó mora sozinha.
(My grandmother lives alone.)
Depois da festa, as duas ficaram sós.
(After the party, the two of them were left alone.)
Barefoot, naked, drunk

These describe the state of a person during the action. Descalço means barefoot. Nu (feminine nua), pelado (informal, very common in Brazil) and despido (more formal) all mean naked. Bêbado means drunk.

As crianças correram descalças no quintal.
(The children ran barefoot in the yard.)
Os meninos nadaram pelados no rio.
(The boys swam naked in the river.)
No quadro, a mulher aparece nua.
(In the painting, the woman appears naked.)
Os dois voltaram bêbados da festa.
(The two of them came back from the party drunk.)
Separate

Separado works the same way when it describes how people or things end up.

Meus pais agora vivem separados.
(My parents now live apart.)
Watch out
Só meaning only never changes

When só means "only" or "just", it is a true adverb and stays só. It never becomes sós. A good test is to try replacing it with apenas. If that works, the word never changes.

Só elas sabem a resposta.
(Only they know the answer.)
Junto is not always agreeing

In junto a and junto de (next to, near), and in junto com (along with), it is a fixed adverb and stays junto. The fixed expression a sós (in private) also never changes.

Elas moram junto ao rio.
(They live next to the river.)

The typical mistake is leaving the word in the masculine singular out of English habit: elas viajaram sozinho. In relaxed Brazilian speech you will also hear junto without agreement, as in a gente vai junto. That is fine in casual talk, but when you are describing the participants, the agreeing form is the safe choice.

Summary

If the English word tells you about the people (alone, together, barefoot, naked, drunk, apart), the Portuguese word is an adjective in disguise. Match it to the subject: ela viaja sozinha, eles andam descalços, elas trabalham juntas. Only true adverbs, such as só meaning only or junto a meaning next to, stay unchanged.