Juntos o juntas!

Question

Cada 31 de diciembre muchas personas se reúnen en este lugar frente al reloj para comer las uvas juntos ...

A shorter sentence "mucha gente come uvas juntas" uses juntas!

Both la gente y las personas are feminine nouns. Why juntos (masculine)?

Answer

Hola William

This is a tricky one because, as you are saying, you'd think the agreeing adjective would be in feminine, matching with "la gente" or "las personas". However, when we use it in masculine what we mean is:

... muchas personas se reúnen en este lugar frente al reloj para comer las uvas [TODOS] juntos ...

Even if we used "mucha gente", (feminine singular), instead of the plural "muchas personas", we would still say:

... mucha gente se reúne en este lugar frente al reloj para comer las uvas [TODOS] juntos ...

It is as if "juntos" here took a different role in the sentence meaning "gathered all together" detaching from the subject (gente or personas).

I hope this clarified it.

Un saludo

Inma

Answer

Sorry, I don't follow that logic. The subject of the sentence is still feminine.

Consider the subject "mi madre y mi tía"

mi madre y mi tía se reúnen en este lugar frente al reloj para comer las uvas [TODAS] juntas ..