Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Junte o alho e a cebola à frigideira. - Add the garlic and the onion to the frying pan.

Junte o alho e a cebola à frigideira.

Add the garlic and the onion to the frying pan.

Breakdown of Junte o alho e a cebola à frigideira.

and

at the (fem. sg.) / to the (fem. sg.)

Questions & Answers about Junte o alho e a cebola à frigideira.

Why does the verb juntar end in an -e here (junte)?

Because this is a formal command (the imperative) directed at você. For regular verbs that end in -ar like juntar, the você command form swaps the usual -a ending for an -e. If you were giving this recipe instruction informally to a friend (tu), you would use the normal present tense form: junta.

I thought juntar meant "to join". Why is it translated as "add" in this sentence?

While juntar does mean "to join" or "to put together", in cooking contexts it is the standard way to say "add" (literally joining an ingredient to the rest of the dish). You might also see the verb adicionar, but juntar is very common in everyday Portuguese recipes.

Why is there a backwards accent on the word à in à frigideira?

That accent shows that two words have merged into one. The verb juntar requires the preposition a (to) to show where you are adding the ingredients. The word frigideira (frying pan) requires the feminine word for "the", which is also a. Instead of writing a a, they combine into à (to the).

Why do we need o and a before alho and cebola? English recipes often just say "add garlic and onion".