Live Class — October 30, 2026

note: this is a recording of a recent CC Club live class. The classes are reserved for members of the CC Club — please do not share publicly 🙏

Highlights

Video

Audio

Chat & additional resources

💍 Engagement & Marriage

• ficar noivo(a) — to get engaged (depois de 11 anos ficamos noivos — after 11 years we got engaged)
• namorido — namorado + marido, a long-term boyfriend who's practically a husband
• parabéns — congratulations
• anel — ring (any ring, jewelry in general)
• aliança — wedding or engagement band
• fundi alguns anéis — I melted down some rings
• casamento civil — civil marriage
• burocracia — bureaucracy
• embaixada — embassy
• casamento de interesse — marriage of convenience
• Conservatória (do Registo Civil) — in Portugal, the civil registry office where civil marriages take place (in Brazil: cartório)
• oficializar o casamento — to make the marriage official
• casar em segredo — to marry in secret
• fugir pra casar — to elope
• casar escondido — to have a secret wedding without the family
• eles já sabiam que ia acontecer — they knew it was coming (casual: eles já estavam esperando)
• nome de solteira — maiden name
• esposo / esposa — husband / wife (everyday Brazilian: marido / mulher)

🪪 Names & Family

• sobrenome — surname, last name
• Brazilian surname order — the mother's surname usually comes first, then the father's (e.g. Ana Silva Santos: Silva from her mother, Santos from her father)
• é difícil de falar — it's a mouthful (é um trava-língua — it's a tongue twister)
• Vocês todos gostam do nome de vocês? — Do you all like your names?
• avô paterno — paternal grandfather
• tataravô — great-great-grandfather (o avô do meu avô)
• tetravô — great-great-great-grandfather
• tia — aunt
• alfabeto — alphabet

🗣️ Expressions & Words

• cabelo longo / cabelo curto — long hair / short hair
• trilha — hike, trail
• visto de turista — tourist visa
• o período mais longo — the longest period
• desculpa — excuse (also "sorry")
• exceção — exception
• pelos primeiros anos — for the first few years
• a gente entende — we get it, we can relate
• tinha a chance de não dar certo — there was a chance it wouldn't work out
• para ter a certeza — to be sure (in Brazil, more often "para ter certeza")
• faz sentido — it makes sense
• ninguém — no one
• amigos próximos — close friends (nossos amigos mais próximos — our closest friends)
• segredo — secret
• eu queria — I wanted / I'd like
• se eu puder — if I can
• escravo — slave
• Mais alguém aqui já correu uma maratona? — Has anyone else here run a marathon?
• milha — mile
• uma distância curta — a short distance
• vale a pena — it's worth it
• golpe — scam, con
• golpista — con artist, scammer
• fraude — fraud

🎃 Halloween

• Quem vai comemorar o Halloween amanhã? — Who's celebrating Halloween tomorrow?
• fantasia — costume (tenho uma fantasia — I have a costume)
• vagalume — firefly
• um cigarro falso — a fake cigarette
• tocar a campainha — to ring the doorbell
• a gente vai se esconder dos vizinhos — we're going to hide from the neighbors
• Feliz Halloween! — Happy Halloween!

✏️ Grammar Notes

• a chance — feminine
• a maratona — feminine
• o cigarro — masculine: um cigarro falso, not "uma cigarro falsa"
• na Inglaterra — em + a = na, since many country names take an article
• coisa — thing (not "cosa", which is Spanish)
• exceção — watch the pronunciation: the "xc" sounds like a single s
• relação — relation, connection in general (relação entre países)
• relacionamento — relationship between people, especially romantic (estou num relacionamento)
• secreto — secret as an adjective (agente secreto, amigo secreto); the noun is segredo (é segredo!)
• Você tinha quantos anos quando vocês se mudaram? — How old were you when you moved? (age uses ter: tinha X anos)

🕌 Words from Arabic

Many Portuguese words start with "al" because the Moors ruled much of the Iberian Peninsula for centuries starting in 711. Arabic uses "al" as its word for "the," and Portuguese often absorbed the article into the noun: al-qutn (the cotton) became algodão. Sometimes the "l" blended into the next sound, so as-sukkar became açúcar.

• almirante — admiral, from the Arabic amīr ("commander"), as in amīr al-baḥr, "commander of the sea"
• alface — lettuce
• algodão — cotton
• almofada — cushion, pillow
• azeite — olive oil
• azeitona — olive
• arroz — rice
• açúcar — sugar
• alecrim — rosemary
• açafrão — saffron
• aldeia — village
• alfândega — customs (at the border)
• armazém — warehouse
• alfaiate — tailor
• alicate — pliers
• alfinete — pin
• almoxarifado — storeroom
• garrafa — bottle
• álgebra — algebra
• algarismo — digit
• algoritmo — algorithm (from the name of the Persian mathematician al-Khwarizmi)
• zero — zero

🎤 Artists & Cultural References

• Pollo, "Vagalumes" — one of the first songs Foster heard in Brazil: https://youtu.be/kszkoFI84JU
• Tim Bernardes — Brazilian singer-songwriter, lead singer of the band O Terno
• Ernesto Carneiro Ribeiro — 19th-century Bahian physician, educator, and grammarian; he taught Rui Barbosa and later debated him publicly over the language of Brazil's first Civil Code
• Rua Almirante Guilhobel — Alexia's old street; "Almirante" shows up in many Brazilian street names
• netball — basketball-like sport with no dribbling, popular in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, barely known in Brazil
• Elizabeth Holmes — founder of Theranos, the blood-testing startup exposed as a fraud; convicted in 2022 and sent to prison
• You Can See Everything — 2026 A24 documentary by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim following Holmes in the weeks before she went to prison
• Nico — German singer and model known for her work with The Velvet Underground
• Forrest Gump — the 1994 film whose title character runs across America