Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Durante a votação, o meu avô explicou‑me como era votar antes da democracia. - During the voting, my grandfather explained to me what it was like to vote before democracy.

Leaving the article out (meu avô, minha casa) is possible but sounds more marked, often more formal, literary, or influenced by Brazilian Portuguese.

So o meu avô is the most natural, everyday way to say my grandfather in Portugal.

Why is the pronoun after the verb in explicou‑me instead of before, like me explicou?

This is a major difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese.

In European Portuguese, in a normal affirmative sentence with no special trigger (like não, que, se, etc.), unstressed object pronouns usually go after the verb and are joined with a hyphen (this is called enclisis):

O meu avô explicou‑me… = My grandfather explained to me…

Putting the pronoun before the verb (me explicou) is typical of Brazilian Portuguese. In Portugal, me explicou is possible only in specific grammatical environments (for example after que, porque, se, quando, etc.: que me explicou, porque me explicou).

Why is there a hyphen in explicou‑me?

When an unstressed pronoun (me, te, se, lhe, nos, vos, lhes, o, a, os, as) is attached after a finite verb in Portuguese, you must use a hyphen:

explicou‑me
disseram‑nos
dá‑lhe
envia‑o

So the hyphen marks that me is a clitic pronoun attached to the verb explicou.

What tense are explicou and era, and why are two different past tenses used?

explicou is pretérito perfeito (simple past): a completed event in the past.
- He explained (once, at that moment).
era is pretérito imperfeito (imperfect): describes a state, situation, or habitual action in the past.
- how it was to vote / what voting was like in those days.

In the sentence:

explicou‑me = one specific act of explaining during that vote.
como era votar antes da democracia = describes the general way voting used to be before democracy (ongoing state or typical situation), not a single event.

That combination (preterite for the main, completed action + imperfect for background description) is very typical in Portuguese.

Why does it say como era votar and not something like como se votava?

Both are correct, but they focus slightly differently:

como era votar = literally how it was to vote → focuses on the experience of voting.
como se votava = how one voted / how people used to vote → focuses more on procedures / methods.

In context, como era votar suggests the grandfather described what it felt like or what the general situation was (e.g., fear, control, lack of secrecy), not just step‑by‑step instructions.

Why is it votar (the infinitive) after como era, and not a votar or a votação?

Here, votar is an infinitive being used as a general activity:

como era votar = what voting was like / how it was to vote.

You wouldn’t normally say como era a votar in this sense. a votar would sound like a progressive form (how it was while (you were) voting), which is not what we want here.

a votação is a noun (the act/event of voting as a whole). If you used it, you would change the structure:

como era a votação antes da democracia = what the vote / voting process was like before democracy.

That’s also correct, but it shifts focus from the act of voting (what it was like for a voter) to the overall voting event/process.

What is the difference between votação, voto, and eleição?

They’re related but not interchangeable:

votação
- The act of voting or the voting session as an event.
- Can also mean the vote count / result (e.g. a votação foi renhida = the vote was close).
voto
- A vote (an individual choice) or vow in other contexts.
- Example: dar um voto, o meu voto.
eleição
- The election as a political event or process of choosing representatives.
- Example: as eleições legislativas, ganhar a eleição.

In Durante a votação, the speaker is talking about the specific voting process/session that was happening at that moment, so votação is the most natural choice.

Why is it Durante a votação and not na votação or enquanto votávamos?

They are all possible but slightly different:

Durante a votação
- Neutral; just means during the voting (period/session).
- Focuses on time span.
na votação (short for em a votação)
- Often feels more like at the vote / at the voting as an event or setting.
- In many contexts it overlaps with durante a votação, but durante is clearer about time.
enquanto votávamos
- while we were voting → emphasizes simultaneous actions and uses a progressive/habitual nuance.
- Also subtly says we were the ones voting, which the original sentence doesn’t specify.

The original focuses on the time frame of that particular voting process: Durante a votação.

Why does antes da democracia use da? What is being contracted?

Antes normally needs de before a noun:

antes de
- noun phrase

Here the noun phrase is a democracia (with the article a), so:

de + a = da (standard contraction in Portuguese)

So:

antes de a democracia → antes da democracia

This contraction is obligatory in standard written Portuguese.

In English we say before democracy (no the). Why do we say a democracia in Portuguese?

Portuguese and English don’t always use articles in the same way.

In Portuguese, abstract or system-type nouns like democracia, liberdade, a escravatura, a monarquia often do take the definite article when we’re talking about them as a specific system or historical period:

a democracia = the democratic system / era
a monarquia = the monarchy (as a system / regime)

So antes da democracia suggests before the democratic system existed (in this country), which is why the article feels natural in Portuguese even though English omits the.

Why isn’t there a word for he before explicou‑me?

Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele, ela, nós, vocês, eles, elas) can be left out when the verb ending already makes the subject clear.

(Ele) explicou‑me → the form explicou already tells us it’s he/she (third person singular).

In this sentence, o meu avô is explicitly mentioned as the subject, so there is no need for a separate subject pronoun ele:

O meu avô explicou‑me… (not O meu avô ele explicou‑me…)

Can the word order be changed, for example: O meu avô explicou‑me, durante a votação, como era votar antes da democracia?

Yes. Word order in Portuguese is relatively flexible, especially for adverbial phrases like durante a votação.

All of these are grammatically fine, with small differences in emphasis:

Durante a votação, o meu avô explicou‑me…
→ Emphasizes the time frame first.
O meu avô explicou‑me, durante a votação, como era votar…
→ Focuses on the grandfather explaining, then adds when it happened as extra info.
O meu avô, durante a votação, explicou‑me…
→ Similar, with a slightly more narrative or written feel.

What you cannot change here (in European Portuguese) is the position of ‑me in a simple affirmative clause: explicou‑me, not me explicou.

Why does avô have an accent, and what’s the difference between avô and avó?

The accents mark both stress and vowel quality:

avô (circumflex ô)
- Stress on the last syllable: a‑vô
- Closed o sound (similar to the o in note but shorter).
- Means grandfather.
avó (acute ó)
- Stress on the last syllable: a‑vó
- Open ó sound (like the o in not).
- Means grandmother.

So the accent is crucial: o meu avô = my grandfather, a minha avó = my grandmother.

What does the ã in votação mean for pronunciation?

The ã indicates a nasal vowel. In votação:

Syllabification: vo‑ta‑ção
The last syllable ção has a nasal sound at the end; you don’t fully pronounce a separate n, you nasalize the vowel instead.

Very roughly for English speakers:

votação ≈ vo‑tah‑SOWN (with S like in see, and the last vowel nasalized, not own exactly).

The ‑ção ending is extremely common in Portuguese nouns (informação, votação, estação, educação), and it’s always stressed on that last syllable with a nasalized ão.