It's a Friday night and eight people are crammed onto two couches in a flat in Ramallah. The tea's going around. Somebody can't find the remote. The match starts in two minutes, and this is the moment you actually need the words, not the ones in a textbook.
Good news: you don't need many. A handful of verbs and a few things to shout will get you through ninety minutes with anyone.
Sitting down to watch: tfarraj
The verb for watching anything on a screen is . A film, a series, a game, it's all tfarraj. It takes 3ala (on) before the thing you're watching.
So when the whistle blows and someone asks what you're up to:
- — I'm watching the match
That little 3am out front is the live "right now" marker. Drop it and batfarraj just means "I watch" in general. Keep it and you're glued to the screen this second.
The word for the match itself is (plural mubaarayaat). The m is a moon letter, so the l in il- stays clean and you say il-mubaarah straight through.
Who's playing? li3eb
To play is . The question everyone asks as they drop onto the couch:
- — who's playing?
You answer with the country, since at the World Cup the teams are whole countries: (Egypt), and so on. Most answers are just place names.
The word for your own club, the one you'd actually pick a fight over, is . naadina is "our team," naadikum is "yours." Hang on to that one, you'll need it at the end.
Who won, who lost
Two verbs carry the whole result. is to win, is to lose. faazu means they won, maSer khisrat means Egypt lost.
The question that cuts through everything when you walk in late:
- — who won?
When the final whistle goes, you say , the match is over. khilSat is "finished" in its feminine form, because mubaarah is feminine. To ask the score:
- — what's the result?
The word is (result). Notice the l of il- vanishes into the n, so it's in-nateeje, never il-nateeje (here's why the l disappears). And a score is just two numbers next to each other, so counting one to ten does most of the work: tneen waa7ad, two-one.
Yelling at the screen
This is the real reason to learn any of it. The all-purpose shout is . It covers "come on," "let's go," "get on with it," and "oh, for God's sake," depending entirely on your tone.
The verb for shouting is . By the second half, the whole room biSayy7u at once and nobody can hear the commentary.
| What you mean | Say |
|---|---|
| come on! | |
| who's playing? | |
| who won? | |
| what's the score? | |
| the match is over |
Happy or gutted: fire7 and zi3el
When your team scores, you , you're glad, you're up off the couch. When they let one in, you , you're upset (properly annoyed).
- lamma faaz naadina, kullna fri7na — when our team won, we were all glad
- lamma khiser, zi3lit kteer — when it lost, I was really upset
And the steady word for content is (pleased). ana mabsooT, naadi faaz. I'm happy, my team won.
When your side wins: mabrook
The thing you say to the friend whose team just won is , congratulations. Say it with a grin if you mean it, flat if you're bitter about your own team. They'll know the difference.
Arguing who's better
The match ends and the second match starts, the one on the couch. To say a team is better, you reshape the adjective into the comparative, a fixed a-- shape. is "better," and you follow it with min for "than":
- — better than
- naadina a7san min naadikum — our team's better than yours
- maSer a7san min — Egypt's better than Greece
| English | Palestinian |
|---|---|
| better | |
| better than | |
| stronger |
The same mold gives you aqwa (stronger) and akbar (bigger), and one form covers any team, masculine or feminine, with no agreement to fuss over. So when the room can't agree, you've got the words to keep it going.
Say mabrook, pour the next round of tea, and start arguing about tomorrow's match.
