diff --git a/internal/auth/pairlang_test.go b/internal/auth/pairlang_test.go
index 2e66229..39f3c8a 100644
--- a/internal/auth/pairlang_test.go
+++ b/internal/auth/pairlang_test.go
@@ -180,14 +180,17 @@ func TestDirectionRoundTrip(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// The refusal this axis exists to make: a pair with no word list cannot be
-// learned toward, however good its langpack is. fr, es and pt-PT all have copy,
-// voices and spelling dictionaries — and nothing that could segment a sentence
-// or read from that language into English, which is what a learner needs.
+// The refusal this axis exists to make: a pair with no learner-side data cannot
+// be learned toward, however good its langpack is. fr and es have copy, voices
+// and spelling dictionaries, and no `learner` block in their packs to offer the
+// choice with — so the server keeps saying no until one is written.
+//
+// pt-PT is deliberately no longer in this list; see TestLearnerDirectionForPtPT
+// below and the argument in `learnerPairs`.
 func TestLearnerDirectionRefusedForPairsWithoutData(t *testing.T) {
 	_, users, _ := newStores(t)
 
-	for _, lang := range []string{"pt-PT", "fr", "es"} {
+	for _, lang := range []string{"fr", "es"} {
 		if err := users.SetPair("bob", lang, DirectionLearningEn); err != nil {
 			t.Fatalf("set %s: %v", lang, err)
 		}
@@ -201,6 +204,37 @@ func TestLearnerDirectionRefusedForPairsWithoutData(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// The other direction of that same rule, and the one a native English speaker
+// writing Portuguese depends on.
+//
+// This is not only a settings toggle: `direction` is what decides which language
+// Petal *explains* in (see suggestions.targetFor), so an account that cannot
+// reach learning_pair gets its Portuguese annotated in Portuguese with no way to
+// ask for English. Pinned in both directions — the move must take, and it must
+// still be there when the account is read back.
+func TestLearnerDirectionForPtPT(t *testing.T) {
+	_, users, _ := newStores(t)
+
+	if err := users.SetPair("bob", "pt-PT", DirectionLearningEn); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("set pt-PT: %v", err)
+	}
+	if w := patchMe(t, users, "bob", `{"direction":"learning_pair"}`); w.Code != http.StatusOK {
+		t.Fatalf("status = %d (%s), want 200", w.Code, w.Body.String())
+	}
+	u, _ := users.Get("bob")
+	if u.Direction != DirectionLearningPair || u.PairLang != "pt-PT" {
+		t.Fatalf("account = %+v, want pt-PT learning_pair", u)
+	}
+
+	// And it can be turned back, the same as zh.
+	if w := patchMe(t, users, "bob", `{"direction":"learning_en"}`); w.Code != http.StatusOK {
+		t.Fatalf("turn back: status = %d (%s)", w.Code, w.Body.String())
+	}
+	if u, _ := users.Get("bob"); u.Direction != DirectionLearningEn {
+		t.Fatalf("direction = %q after turning back", u.Direction)
+	}
+}
+
 // The two-field combination the handler validates as one decision. An account
 // already learning Chinese that asks only to change pair is asking for a state
 // neither field names on its own — French with segmentation — and it must not
diff --git a/internal/auth/users.go b/internal/auth/users.go
index afa4078..955d8ab 100644
--- a/internal/auth/users.go
+++ b/internal/auth/users.go
@@ -104,19 +104,34 @@ const (
 // The pairs whose *learner* direction Petal can actually serve, which is a
 // narrower thing than a shipped pair and narrower again than a langpack.
 //
-// Turning a pair around needs data no langpack carries: a word list to segment
-// with, and a dictionary that reads from the pair language into English. Chinese
-// has both as of Phase 26 (CC-CEDICT + jieba); French, Spanish and Portuguese
-// have neither yet, and — unlike a missing pack, which leaves a writer looking
-// at copy she cannot read — a missing word list would leave her looking at an
-// editor that silently does nothing when she hovers. Both are bad; only one is
-// legible as a bug. So the server refuses, for the same reason and by the same
-// mechanism as `shippedPairs`.
+// Turning a pair around needs data no langpack carries: a way to find word
+// boundaries, and a dictionary that reads from the pair language into English. A
+// pair missing either would leave a writer looking at an editor that silently
+// does nothing when she hovers — worse than a missing pack, which at least reads
+// as a bug rather than as an absence. So the server refuses, for the same reason
+// and by the same mechanism as `shippedPairs`.
 //
-// This list is expected to grow one pair at a time and never to be inferred:
-// segmentation is a property of a writing system, and there is no rule that
-// derives "has a word list" from a language code.
-var learnerPairs = []string{"zh"}
+// Chinese has both as of Phase 26 (CC-CEDICT + jieba). Portuguese turns out to
+// have both as well, and the original note here — "French, Spanish and
+// Portuguese have neither" — was written one phase too early to see it:
+//
+//   - Word boundaries are spaces. The megabyte word list jieba needs is a
+//     property of a writing system that doesn't use them, not a debt every pair
+//     owes; a Latin-script pair needs nothing loaded to be segmented.
+//   - The dictionary arrived with dict.db, which reads pt→en as readily as
+//     en→pt (see lexicon.dreamProvider.reverse). The reverse lookup the hover
+//     and the word card need is already there and already answering.
+//
+// So the pair a native English speaker learning Portuguese needs is real, and
+// what was actually blocking it was this list. French and Spanish clear the same
+// two bars through the same dict.db; they are held back only by their packs
+// carrying no `learner` copy yet (see Pack.learner), which is a translation
+// question rather than a data one.
+//
+// This list is still expected to grow one pair at a time and never to be
+// inferred: segmentation is a property of a writing system, and there is no rule
+// that derives "has a word list" from a language code.
+var learnerPairs = []string{"zh", "pt-PT"}
 
 // SupportsLearnerDirection reports whether a pair can be turned around.
 func SupportsLearnerDirection(lang string) bool {
diff --git a/internal/lexicon/handlers.go b/internal/lexicon/handlers.go
index 837ade1..5b7960b 100644
--- a/internal/lexicon/handlers.go
+++ b/internal/lexicon/handlers.go
@@ -49,10 +49,19 @@ func (h *Handler) GlossRoutes() chi.Router {
 // It does not go through [Handler.providerFor], and that is not an oversight.
 // providerFor picks a dictionary by the writer's *pair*, to answer "what does
 // this English word mean in her language" — a question whose answer differs per
-// pair. This endpoint asks the opposite question of exactly one language, and
-// [auth.SupportsLearnerDirection] already guarantees that language is Chinese.
-// Routing it through the pair would add a database read per hover to choose
-// between one option and itself.
+// pair. This endpoint asks the opposite question of exactly one language: it
+// reads hanzi, and hanzi are Chinese whoever is looking them up. Routing it
+// through the pair would add a database read per hover to choose between one
+// option and itself.
+//
+// What no longer holds is the reason this used to give — that
+// [auth.SupportsLearnerDirection] guarantees the caller is on the zh pair. Since
+// Portuguese joined `learnerPairs` a learning_pair account may be Portuguese, so
+// the guarantee now comes from the *caller*: the client only ever asks this
+// route about a token its Chinese segmenter found, and that segmenter is loaded
+// only for the zh pair (see useSegmenter in App.tsx). A stray lookup is still
+// answered safely — a word the Chinese dictionary has never heard of is a 200
+// with empty lists, exactly like any other miss.
 func (h *Handler) HanziRoutes() chi.Router {
 	r := chi.NewRouter()
 	r.Get("/{word}", h.hanzi)
diff --git a/internal/suggestions/doclang_test.go b/internal/suggestions/doclang_test.go
index 3c3349c..2dc752b 100644
--- a/internal/suggestions/doclang_test.go
+++ b/internal/suggestions/doclang_test.go
@@ -119,8 +119,36 @@ func TestDocumentLangNeedsCorroboration(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// The two language decisions are genuinely independent, and only the zh pair can
-// prove it today — it is the one pair that can be travelled in both directions.
+// The Portuguese half of the same rule, and the bug it was reported as: "the
+// Portuguese option isn't translating the advice in English — it's just
+// reprinting Portuguese."
+//
+// Nothing was wrong with targetFor when that was reported. It was reading a
+// direction the account could not leave: `learnerPairs` held only zh, so every
+// pt-PT writer was learning_en by force and this function correctly explained a
+// Portuguese document in Portuguese. Pinned here rather than only in the auth
+// package because this is where the consequence actually lands — the language
+// the writer reads her advice in.
+func TestTargetExplainsPortugueseInEnglishForALearner(t *testing.T) {
+	learner := targetFor("pt-PT", auth.DirectionLearningPair, docLangPair)
+	if learner.Correct.Code != "pt-PT" {
+		t.Fatalf("corrected in %s, want the document's own Portuguese", learner.Correct.Code)
+	}
+	if learner.Explain.Code != "en" {
+		t.Fatalf("explained in %s, want English", learner.Explain.Code)
+	}
+
+	// And the native Portuguese speaker practising English is untouched: her
+	// Portuguese is still explained in Portuguese.
+	native := targetFor("pt-PT", auth.DirectionLearningEn, docLangPair)
+	if native.Correct.Code != "pt-PT" || native.Explain.Code != "pt-PT" {
+		t.Fatalf("learning_en on a Portuguese document: correct=%s explain=%s", native.Correct.Code, native.Explain.Code)
+	}
+}
+
+// The two language decisions are genuinely independent, and zh was the first
+// pair that could prove it — the first that could be travelled in both
+// directions.
 //
 // A Mandarin native practising English who writes Chinese wants Chinese
 // corrections explained in Chinese. An English native learning Chinese who writes
diff --git a/web/src/App.tsx b/web/src/App.tsx
index 9326d38..15f961d 100644
--- a/web/src/App.tsx
+++ b/web/src/App.tsx
@@ -118,7 +118,13 @@ export default function App() {
   // Mandarin native drafting English quotes Chinese constantly, and none of that
   // is what segmentation is for. Declared above the checkpoint because the
   // offline 错别字 pass reads it.
-  const segmenter = useSegmenter(me?.direction === 'learning_pair')
+  //
+  // Both halves of the gate matter now that Chinese is not the only pair with a
+  // learner direction. `learning_pair` alone used to imply zh; a writer learning
+  // Portuguese is also learning_pair and has no use for a megabyte of Chinese
+  // word list — nor for the hanzi hover it turns on, which would ask /api/hanzi
+  // about Portuguese words.
+  const segmenter = useSegmenter(me?.direction === 'learning_pair' && me?.pair_lang === 'zh')
 
   const {
     suggestions,
diff --git a/web/src/i18n/packs/pt-PT.ts b/web/src/i18n/packs/pt-PT.ts
index 3400422..f3465c7 100644
--- a/web/src/i18n/packs/pt-PT.ts
+++ b/web/src/i18n/packs/pt-PT.ts
@@ -42,6 +42,25 @@ export const ptPT: Pack = {
   nativeName: 'Português',
   locale: 'pt-PT',
 
+  // pt-PT is the second pair Petal can be *learned* toward: spaces do the
+  // segmenting a Latin script needs, and dict.db already reads Portuguese into
+  // English (see auth.learnerPairs for both halves of that argument).
+  //
+  // Each label is written for whoever would pick it, which is why they are not
+  // in the same language as each other. A native Portuguese speaker practising
+  // English reads the first; an English speaker learning Portuguese reads the
+  // second, and would not be helped by being told "Português" in Portuguese.
+  //
+  // This is also the switch that decides which language Petal *explains* in, so
+  // it is the difference between a Portuguese document annotated in Portuguese
+  // and the same document annotated in English.
+  learner: {
+    label: 'Estou a aprender · I am learning',
+    toEn: 'inglês',
+    toPair: 'Portuguese',
+    failed: 'Não foi possível mudar · Couldn’t switch — nothing changed',
+  },
+
   app: {
     duplicateTitle: (title) => `${title} (cópia)`,
     garden: 'Jardim de palavras',