Мы решили работать вдвоём.

Решили is the past tense plural form of решить, which means to decide.

It is plural because the subject is мы = we.

A useful thing to remember is that in Russian past tense, the verb agrees with the subject in gender and number, not person:

• я решил / решила = I decided
• мы решили = we decided
• он решил = he decided
• она решила = she decided

So Мы решили literally means We decided.

After решить, Russian normally uses an infinitive to say what someone decided to do.

So:

• решили работать = decided to work
• решили поехать = decided to go
• решили остаться = decided to stay

This is very similar to English decide to do something.

So the structure is:

• мы решили + infinitive

In this sentence:

• мы решили работать = we decided to work

Вдвоём means as two people, the two of us, or together as a pair.

It does not just mean together in a general sense. It specifically tells you that there are two people involved.

So:

• Мы решили работать вдвоём = We decided to work as a pair
• or We decided that the two of us would work together

This word is part of a pattern:

• вдвоём = in twos / the two of us
• втроём = in threes / the three of us
• вчетвером = the four of us

This is a very common question.

• вместе = together
• вдвоём = the two of us together / as a pair

So вместе is more general, while вдвоём is more specific.

Compare:

• Мы работаем вместе = We work together
• Мы работаем вдвоём = The two of us work together / We work as a pair

If you use вдвоём, you are emphasizing that there are exactly two people.

In many contexts, both are possible, but the nuance is different.

This is about aspect.

• решить is perfective
• решать is imperfective

Here, решили is used because the sentence talks about a completed decision: the decision was made.

• Мы решили работать вдвоём = We decided to work as a pair

If you used решали, it would suggest something like:

• we were deciding
• we kept trying to decide
• we discussed and considered the decision process

So решили is the natural choice when you mean a finished decision.

In this sentence, вдвоём functions as an adverb.

It describes how they are going to work:

• работать как? — вдвоём
• work how? — as two / the two of us together

It does not change for case, gender, or number here.

So you can think of it as a fixed adverbial word meaning in a group of two.

Yes. Russian word order is fairly flexible, and changing it usually changes emphasis, not the basic meaning.

The neutral order here is:

• Мы решили работать вдвоём.

But you could also hear:

• Вдвоём мы решили работать.
• Работать мы решили вдвоём.
• Мы вдвоём решили работать.

These can all be understood, but they do not sound equally neutral in every context.

For a learner, Мы решили работать вдвоём is the safest and most natural basic version.

Sometimes yes, but often Russian keeps it for clarity.

Because решили only tells you that the subject is plural, it does not by itself tell you who the subject is. It could mean:

• we decided
• they decided

So if you just say:

• Решили работать вдвоём

the subject has to be understood from context. In conversation, that can be possible, but without context it is ambiguous.

That is why мы is useful here.

Yes, the correct pronunciation is with ё: вдвоём.

In many Russian texts, ё is often written as е, so you may see:

• вдвоем

But it is still pronounced vdvoyom, not vdveem.

For learners, it is very helpful to remember the version with ё, because it shows the correct pronunciation and stress:

• вдвоём

The stress is:

• Мы реши́ли рабо́тать вдвоём.

Breakdown:

• реши́ли
• рабо́тать
• вдвоём

Stress matters in Russian, so it is worth learning words together with their stress patterns.

Not exactly.

Вдвоём means the two of us, so it actually means there are two people working together.

If you want to say alone about one person, Russian would use something like:

• один / одна
• в одиночку
• сам / сама

So вдвоём is almost the opposite of alone: it means not separately, but as a twosome.