This paper reportson one part of a large study which attempted to identify the linguistic andhierarchical characteristics of van Hiele theory amongst grade 10 learners. Thesample consisted of a total of 359 participants from five purposively selected schoolsfrom Mthatha District in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Theperformance of these learners on a written geometry test was analysed. On thebasis of the analysis, 30 learners were selected to be the subjects forinterviews. This paper focuses on the analysis of the interview transcripts todiscern the van Hiele characteristics among learners’ geometrical tasks. Thispaper reports particularly on linguistic and hierarchical characteristics ofthe van Hiele theory. The ethical requirements were met. The findings from thestudy affirmed the existence of the linguistic and hierarchic characteristics ofthe van Hiele theory.