diff --git a/spacy/matcher.pyx b/spacy/matcher.pyx
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c19fd8919
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spacy/matcher.pyx
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+class MatchState(object):
+    def __init__(self, token_spec, ext):
+        self.token_spec = token_spec
+        self.ext = ext
+        self.is_final = False
+
+    def match(self, token):
+        for attr, value in self.token_spec:
+            if getattr(token, attr) != value:
+                return False
+        else:
+            return True
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return '<spec %s>' % (self.token_spec)
+
+
+class EndState(object):
+    def __init__(self, entity_type, length):
+        self.entity_type = entity_type
+        self.length = length
+        self.is_final = True
+
+    def __call__(self, token):
+        return (self.entity_type, ((token.i+1) - self.length), token.i+1)
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return '<end %s>' % (self.entity_type)
+
+
+class Matcher(object):
+    def __init__(self, patterns):
+        self.start_states = []
+        for token_specs, entity_type in patterns:
+            state = EndState(entity_type, len(token_specs))
+            for spec in reversed(token_specs):
+                state = MatchState(spec, state)
+            self.start_states.append(state)
+
+    def __call__(self, tokens):
+        queue = list(self.start_states)
+        matches = []
+        for token in tokens:
+            next_queue = list(self.start_states)
+            for pattern in queue:
+                if pattern.match(token):
+                    if pattern.ext.is_final:
+                        matches.append(pattern.ext(token))
+                    else:
+                        next_queue.append(pattern.ext)
+            queue = next_queue
+        return matches
diff --git a/tests/test_matcher.py b/tests/test_matcher.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..391d9526c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_matcher.py
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+import pytest
+
+from spacy.matcher import *
+
+
+class MockToken(object):
+    def __init__(self, i, string):
+        self.i = i
+        self.orth_ = string
+
+
+def make_tokens(string):
+    return [MockToken(i, s) for i, s in enumerate(string.split())]
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def matcher():
+    specs = []
+    for string in ['JavaScript', 'Google Now', 'Java']:
+        spec = tuple([[('orth_', orth)] for orth in string.split()])
+        specs.append((spec, 'product'))
+    return Matcher(specs)
+
+
+def test_compile(matcher):
+    assert len(matcher.start_states) == 3
+
+
+def test_no_match(matcher):
+    tokens = make_tokens('I like cheese')
+    assert matcher(tokens) == []
+
+
+def test_match_start(matcher):
+    tokens = make_tokens('JavaScript is good')
+    assert matcher(tokens) == [('product', 0, 1)]
+
+
+def test_match_end(matcher):
+    tokens = make_tokens('I like Java')
+    assert matcher(tokens) == [('product', 2, 3)]
+
+
+def test_match_middle(matcher):
+    tokens = make_tokens('I like Google Now best')
+    assert matcher(tokens) == [('product', 2, 4)]
+
+
+def test_match_multi(matcher):
+    tokens = make_tokens('I like Google Now and Java best')
+    assert matcher(tokens) == [('product', 2, 4), ('product', 5, 6)]