Los estudiantes juntamos

Question

I was a little surprised at the sentence "Los estudiantes juntamos...". I would have expected it to be "Los estudiantes juntan..." as los estudiantes is 3rd person plural. Is it "juntamos" because the speaker is counting himself amongst them? i.e. "We, the students, are collecting..."

Silvia Piriz · Accepted Answer

Hola Gareth T.
Grammatically speaking, “los estudiantes” is third-person plural, so the default verb form would indeed be juntan:
Los estudiantes juntan dinero. → The students collect money.
However, “Los estudiantes juntamos…” is also possible in Spanish when the speaker includes themselves in the group. In that case, the subject is conceptually “we (the students)”, so the verb shifts to first-person plural:
Los estudiantes juntamos dinero para el proyecto. → We, the students, are collecting money for the project.
This is a perfectly natural and accepted usage in Spanish, especially in spoken language and narratives where the speaker is part of the group being described.
Well spotted — it’s a subtle but very real feature of how Spanish works.
Saludos
Silvia