This paper reports on one part of a large study which attempted to identify the linguistic and hierarchical characteristics of van Hiele theory amongst grade 10 learners. The sample consisted of a total of 359 participants from five purposively selected schools from Mthatha District in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The performance of these learners on a written geometry test was analysed. On the basis of the analysis, 30 learners were selected to be the subjects for interviews. This paper focuses on the analysis of the interview transcripts to discern the van Hiele characteristics among learners' geometrical tasks. This paper reports particularly on linguistic and hierarchical characteristics of the van Hiele theory. The ethical requirements were met. The findings from the study affirmed the existence of the linguistic and hierarchic characteristics of the van Hiele theory.