Football and sport in Algerian Darija

A great deal of real, unguarded Algerian conversation happens about football, and if you can follow it you have access to a room you were previously standing outside. It is also, conveniently, a subject where being wrong is free.

Eighty one sentences: the match, the result, the argument. شفت الماتش البارح, did you see the match yesterday. فازو, they won. خسرو, they lost. تعادلو, they drew.

Three verbs and you can discuss any match

Won, lost, drew. With those three and a team name you can take part in the entire post match conversation, which is more than many learners manage after a year of study. Add عجبني بزّاف, I liked it a lot, and you have an opinion as well as a fact.

The opening question is a gift

Did you see the match yesterday is one of the easiest conversations to start with an Algerian man of almost any age, and it hands the difficult part to the other person. You ask five words; you get several minutes of listening practice on a subject where you already know the context. That is an excellent trade for a learner.

Speed is the challenge, not vocabulary

Football talk is fast, overlapping and full of exclamation. The words themselves are simple. What is hard is the pace, which makes commentary and post match discussion very good listening practice: you know what is being talked about, so you can concentrate entirely on catching the shapes.

What to do with this page

Learn the three result verbs and the opening question this week. Then watch a match with Algerian commentary and do not try to understand all of it. Try to catch those four things and nothing else. When you can, add four more. This is the least painful listening practice in the library because you would probably be watching anyway.

3 phrases pour commencer