Class #9 with Alexia, October 27, 2026
note: this is a recording of your private coaching session with Alexia. No one will see it except you, Alexia, and Foster 🙏
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Session summary
A stretch without much practice, and then straight back into a full hour of conversation. It ran from Christmas in Brazil, to voting in the second round from abroad (you at the embassy in London, your dad driving up to Edinburgh, Alexia in Porto), to the family WhatsApp group your grandmother found on your grandfather's phone and the Christmas dinner that now isn't happening, to Alexia's iron infusion and what comes next, to giving blood (for people and for animals), to your boyfriend's cat being put to sleep yesterday, to Alexia's two job offers working with dogs, to reporting neglect in Portugal and in England, to the XL Bully ban. It finished with a tour of very large dogs and how Buddy started out as a puppy.
You opened by saying your Portuguese felt weak, and then you told two long stories of your own, the family WhatsApp group and the afternoon at the vet. The English came in at specific gaps (nieces, makes sense, euthanasia, period of time) rather than whole sentences. You also brought back Alexia's iron infusion from last class without being prompted, and that kind of follow-up question keeps a conversation alive. The one thing to work on before next class is the same as last time, and it's in the second-to-last section: third-person verbs coming out in the first person. Ele tive for ele teve, falei for falou.
🗳️ Votar de fora: multa, abstenção e mesários
Funcionou para votar aí? — Did voting work out there? (votar is to vote. Voltar, with the l, is to come back.)
A multa — fine
Sete reais — seven reais (Alexia's figure for the fine if you don't vote and don't justify it)
A abstenção — abstention, people who don't turn out to vote
A embaixada — embassy (you asked for embassy)
A urna eletrônica — electronic voting machine
Os mesários — poll workers (the people at the tables who check your name)
A falta de mesários — the shortage of poll workers
As jaquetas de motociclistas — bikers' jackets (you asked for motorcycle jacket)
Fazer propaganda — to campaign, to promote (you reached for advertise)
Voting from abroad gives you a neat little system in four words. You either vote, or you justificar why you couldn't (Alexia was in the United States for the first round and sent her plane tickets), or you skip it and pay the multa. At sete reais the multa costs less than the train, so in Portugal the abstenção is high. There are only three places to vote, in Porto, Lisbon and Faro, and for anyone living near the Spanish border the trip costs far more than the fine.
Alexia got there at ten to eight. The urna opened late because of a falta de mesários, and she was out an hour later. She wore blue so nobody would bother her. In London it was calm too, even with the Bolsonaro supporters in their jaquetas de motociclistas.
The point about fazer propaganda was yours. At this stage nobody's going to change their mind in the queue, so there's no reason to show up in colours. Alexia just supplied the phrase.
👨👩👧 O grupo da família no WhatsApp
Essa eleição foi a primeira vez que a família do lado do meu pai... — This election was the first time my dad's side of the family... (Alexia typed this for you as you told it. Read the full version below.)
O meu avô morreu três meses atrás, e minha avó estava olhando o telefone dele. E viu o WhatsApp dele. — My grandfather died three months ago, and my grandmother was looking through his phone. And she saw his WhatsApp.
Os sobrinhos — nephews
As sobrinhas — nieces
Minha avó nunca gostou muito deles — My grandmother never liked them much (you said minha avó sempre não gostariam deles muito)
O racismo — racism
Faz sentido — it makes sense
Reeleito — re-elected
The sentence about your grandmother fixes two things at once. Portuguese says nunca, not sempre não, for "never". And the verb is gostou, the past tense for one person, not gostariam, the conditional for several. Then gostar takes de: gostar deles.
The story itself is a hard one, and you told it all the way through. Your grandmother found the group with your grandfather's brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, all bolsonaristas, and finally felt she'd been right about them all along. Now the Christmas dinner the whole family was planning won't happen, because your dad, your aunt and your grandparents are with Lula. The observation that closes the section is yours: it's sad to watch families split, but with ideas and ways of life that different, it faz sentido.
Alexia's reply was that this is the reality for a lot of Brazilian families right now. Her friends were already posting memes asking what Christmas was going to look like. On reeleito, the word you asked for, her point was that Lula can't run again, so the left will have to put forward someone new.
💉 Ferro na veia, parte dois
Eu fiz transfusão de ferro — I had an iron infusion (you asked for injection of iron. Last class it was ferro na veia. Same thing.)
Cuidar do problema — to deal with the problem (you reached for fix)
Ginecológico — gynaecological
Genético — genetic
Seis tubos — six tubes
A anemia — anaemia (feminine: a anemia)
Doar sangue — to give blood (you said sangue donativo)
Quarenta e nove quilos, cinquenta quilos — forty-nine kilos, fifty kilos
AB positivo — AB positive
O meu roommate — my flatmate (the English word, used as is)
Pálido — pale
The infusion worked. In Alexia's words, eu sou outra pessoa. But an infusion treats the symptom, and cuidar do problema means finding out why. Her doctor thinks the cause is ginecológico, so next comes the gynaecologist, more tests, and then all the blood work again.
You heard ginecológico and asked whether her parents had it too. That question belongs to genético. The two words sound close and mean completely different things.
Blood tests are hard for Alexia: seis tubos, and she can't look. The one person she can do them with is a nurse friend who also meditates.
On doar sangue: in Brazil you can only donate from cinquenta quilos, and Alexia always weighed quarenta e nove. She's above fifty now, but with anemia she still can't. Her type is AB positivo.
Your roommate gave blood a few months ago and came out pálido. He had to sit for a while before he could leave.
🐾 Banco de sangue, veterinários e o gato
Banco de sangue para animais — animal blood bank
Eles fariam isso — they would do that (fariam is the conditional of fazer: eu faria, você faria, eles fariam)
Colocamos ele para dormir — we put him to sleep
Ele tinha vinte anos — he was twenty (you said ele tive vinte anos)
There's an animal banco de sangue close to Alexia's, and she wants to find out whether Buddy could donate. It would have to go to another dog, and she isn't sure whether dogs have blood types the way people do. It's on her list to find out.
You asked for the word for euthanasia. Last class gave you eutanásia and deixar descansar. Today's is the third way families say it: colocamos ele para dormir. For age in the past, use tinha, not tive. Age is a state, so it takes the imperfect: ele tinha vinte anos, eu tinha quinze anos.
The thought you had in the waiting room was yours, and it's a generous one. The work must be hard, but people who work there see animals all day, and seeing a dog or a cat makes you happier, so it's probably worth it. Alexia's answer was that she'd be in a depression in two seconds.
🐕 O adestrador do Buddy, a IRA e o pitbull
O adestrador — dog trainer (adestrar um cão is to train a dog)
Hugo — Buddy's trainer
A IRA: Intervenção e Resgate Animal — Portugal's animal rescue and intervention group
Na perna dele — on his leg
Sem julgar — without judging
Mas eu tava julgando — but I was judging (you said é que eu estava julgando, which is right. Tava is the spoken version.)
Alexia has two dog jobs on offer. Hugo, Buddy's adestrador, calls about once a month to ask her to become his assistant. The owner of Buddy's daycare and hotel keeps asking her to come and work there. Her hesitation is ethical. Training dogs means dealing with owners, and seeing an animal treated badly would weigh on her. The daycare would suit her better.
You asked whether Portugal has a number to call about neglect. There are two. The IRA is the hardcore one: they'll go in and get the animal. The other is the regular linha de resgate animal, where you're often told to hold on to the dog yourself and wait an hour or more. Alexia once reported a neighbour's dog that was kept outside in all weather. The police checked that it had water and food, and that was that.
Your own story was the dog with something wrong na perna dele. You knew from looking at the owner that the dog wasn't being looked after. Your friend talked you out of calling the RSPCA because the dog wasn't alone. You started to say sem julgar, then admitted you were judging.
Alexia's pitbull story is from her office days in Rio. There was a pitbull outside a house she passed every day, flies around a wound on his head, almost certainly being trained to attack. He wagged his tail at her. The office got together, rescued him and took him to the vet. He slept in the office, then went home with Alexia, and within forty minutes of her posting him for adoption a family turned up. She interviewed them first. He's still with them.
🚫 Pode banir? O XL Bully
Teve um período de tempo — there was a period of time (you said tive uma tempo)
Pode banir — can ban
Não pode banir — can't ban
Banir — to ban
Teve is doing two jobs in this line. It's the past of ter for ele and ela, and in everyday Brazilian Portuguese it's also "there was": teve um período, teve uma festa, teve um problema. Tive only ever means "I had".
The explanation here was all yours. In England there was a period when XL Bullies were hurting people in public, several cases within a month or two, and the government banned the breed. Your view was clear: it's the owner, not the dog. The dogs are strong enough that even a big man can't hold one back once it attacks.
🐶 Raças: do Cane Corso ao filhote
A raça — breed
O Cane Corso — Cane Corso
O Dog Alemão — Great Dane
O Cão d'Água Português — Portuguese Water Dog
O Mastiff Tibetano — Tibetan Mastiff (Alexia typed Siberiano first and corrected herself)
O Epagneul Breton — Brittany, the French Brittany
O filhote — puppy
To look up any of these, type the name plus raça and the photos do the rest. The Cão d'Água Português was the one Obama had, but it wasn't the dreadlocked dog you had in mind. That one is the Komondor, from Hungary. The owner of Buddy's hotel has three Mastiffs Tibetanos, and Alexia has met them. They're enormous.
The Epagneul Breton is Buddy's breed. As a filhote he was a lot of work, and the breed always is. If you want a dog that can come on tour with you, Alexia's vote went to the salsicha from last class. They fit anywhere.
🔁 Tive, teve. Falei, falou.
Meu pai falou isso — my dad said that
Ele dirigiu até Edinburgh — he drove to Edinburgh
Ele tinha vinte anos — he was twenty (you said ele tive)
Teve um período de tempo — there was a period of time (you said tive)
Minha avó nunca gostou muito deles — my grandmother never liked them much (you said gostariam)
O governo inglês falou — the English government said (you said falei)
O meu amigo falou — my friend said (you said falei)
The pattern from Class #6 is still the main thing. When someone else is the subject, the verb still comes out in the eu form: tive for teve, falei for falou. As last time, you know the right form. Short sentences come out right, and the slip happens when the story picks up speed. Two pairs cover most of it: eu tive, ele teve and eu falei, ele falou. Say them out loud until the second half of each pair is automatic.
📚 Homework
1. Seven sentences into the recorder
Take the seven sentences in the section above and use the method you already have. Read each one out loud into your phone's recorder, leave a gap, play it back and repeat while you're walking or cooking.
2. Tell the WhatsApp story again
Record yourself telling it from the start, with sobrinhos, sobrinhas, nunca gostou and faz sentido in the places you reached for English.
3. Two breeds, three sentences each
Look up the Komondor and the Mastiff Tibetano. Write three sentences about each in Portuguese: where it's from, what it looks like, and whether you'd have one.
4. The words you handed to English today
Say each one out loud a few times, then put it in a sentence about your own week.
A embaixada — embassy
Fazer propaganda — to campaign, to promote
As jaquetas de motociclistas — bikers' jackets
Os sobrinhos, as sobrinhas — nephews, nieces
Faz sentido — it makes sense
A transfusão de ferro — iron infusion
Cuidar do problema — to deal with the problem
Pálido — pale
Colocar para dormir — to put to sleep
Um período de tempo — a period of time
Banir — to ban
Julgar — to judge
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