NSSCAS Khoekhoegowab First Language 8190 common mistakes
NSSCAS Khoekhoegowab First Language 8190 · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Writes pronouns, adjectives and verb endings that do not match the noun's gender-number class - for example using a masculine subject marker with a feminine noun, or leaving the adjective unmarked while the noun carries its suffix. Errors cluster on duals and on the feminine singular, and often the same noun is treated as a different class in the next sentence.
Khoekhoegowab agreement is carried by person-gender-number (PGN) morphemes that must recur on every dependent word, but candidates compose sentence by sentence and choose agreement by 'feel' or by the sound of the noun rather than by its class. Transfer from English or Afrikaans, which have no such system, makes the repeated marking feel redundant, so it gets dropped.
What to do instead
Before writing, list the nouns you will use in a three-column grid (masculine / feminine / neuter) across singular, dual and plural, and note the PGN morpheme each takes. Then draft with the grid open and proofread by circling every dependent word and tracing a line back to its noun to confirm the marker matches. Practise by converting a short English or Afrikaans paragraph into Khoekhoegowab and then re-reading only the agreement markers.
Builds clauses in English/Afrikaans subject–verb–object order, puts the tense-aspect or clause-type particle (ge, ra, go, nî) in the wrong slot or omits it entirely, and strings three or four main clauses together with no subordinator where the target language would use a subordinate clause with o.
Candidates translate their thoughts word for word from the language of the classroom or playground. Because the verb-final pattern and the obligatory clause particles have no counterpart in those languages, they disappear silently: nothing in the candidate's mental translation flags them as missing, so the sentence still 'feels' complete.
What to do instead
Drill the frame explicitly: subject + particle + object + verb, with the particle never left out of a declarative main clause. Take five sentences from a model text, copy them out, then cover the original and rebuild each from a keyword list, checking order and particles against the model. In the exam, after finishing the grammar section, read each answer backwards from the verb to the subject - a reversed reading exposes missing particles quickly.
Copies whole sentences from the passage into the summary, changing at most one or two words, and runs to well over the permitted length because each copied sentence drags in its examples and figures.
Lifting text feels safe under time pressure and gives an illusion of accuracy, and the candidate has usually been taught to 'find the answer in the passage' for comprehension, so the same strategy is carried over. Copying is also faster than the paraphrase the task actually rewards.
What to do instead
Two-stage method: first write down only the key ideas as short noun phrases with no verbs and no numbers (a note skeleton), close the passage, and then build full sentences only from the skeleton. Count words at the end and cut by deleting the least central idea, not by shaving adjectives. Practise with a strict timer to normalise producing a summary that is shorter than the limit rather than longer.
Chooses the wrong information to include - reproducing the vivid opening anecdote, statistics or the writer's examples - while omitting the actual central claim, and sometimes slipping in a personal opinion such as 'I think the writer is right'.
Concrete detail is easier to remember and to locate than an abstract main point, and candidates confuse 'important-sounding' with 'central'. The opinion creeps in because the passage is engaging and the candidate responds to it as a reader rather than as an information processor.
What to do instead
Before writing anything, state the passage's main point in one sentence to yourself and check it against the task instruction. Then sort candidate points into two lists - 'needed to understand the main point' and 'illustration only' - and draw a line through the second list. Rehearse the rule that the summary reports what the passage says and never what the candidate thinks, and mark every first-person form for deletion in the final check.
Writes the wrong click letter or replaces a click with the nearest plain letter - ǀ for ǁ, ǃ for ǂ, or g/k/t where a click belongs - so that words change meaning or become unrecognisable, and the same word is spelled two different ways in one script.
Candidates often cannot type the click characters on the keyboard or in handwriting have never been shown the difference between the dental, lateral, alveolar and palatal series and their accompanying accompaniments. Under time pressure they substitute a lookalike and move on, and no proofreading habit catches the result.
What to do instead
Build a personal reference card of the four click series plus the common combinations, and copy it by hand until each shape can be produced from memory. Write every composition with the click letters formed deliberately rather than quickly, then proofread once looking only at clicks, reading the words aloud. In practice essays, keep a short list of high-frequency words containing clicks and check those specific words rather than the whole text.
Omits tone marks and vowel-length distinctions in written work, writing a word without its high or low tone marking and flattening long vowels to short, so that words which are distinguished only by tone or length become identical on the page.
Tone feels like an optional decoration to candidates who speak the language fluently - they hear the difference and assume the reader will too - and typing accents is slow. Where the candidate's own variety or the local school pronunciation neutralises a contrast, the distinction may not be salient at all.
What to do instead
Treat tone marking as part of spelling, not as an accent: mark it in the first draft, at the moment of writing the word, rather than adding it afterwards. Use a short paired list of words distinguished only by tone or vowel length and drill dictation of those pairs, marking tone each time. In the final check, read the script aloud and put a mark wherever your voice rises or falls and the page is bare.
Ignores the conventions of the required text type - writing a formal letter with no address, salutation or closing, writing a speech as a continuous essay with no greeting of the audience, mixing first-person singular into a report that should be impersonal, or addressing a named individual in what should be a public notice.
Candidates read the prompt for the topic and start writing immediately, treating format as packaging rather than as part of the task. Many have learned one 'essay shape' and reuse it for every directed-writing question, so the register never shifts.
What to do instead
Spend the first two minutes of the directed-writing task writing a skeleton of the frame only: the headings, opening and closing formulae, and the form of address, before any content. Ask yourself three questions on the prompt - who is writing, who is reading, and what does the reader expect to see first - and write the answer at the top of your plan. Practise by converting one set of content into three different text types so the frame becomes the part you can produce automatically.
Answers a literature question by retelling the story in order - 'then he went, then she said' - with no reference to theme, characterisation, structure or language, and no quotation or close reference to the text to support the point being made.
Narrative is the easiest thing to remember and the easiest thing to write under pressure, and a plot summary always produces a full page, which feels like a complete answer. Candidates often do not know the difference between describing what happens and analysing how the text works, because they have practised comprehension rather than criticism.
What to do instead
Use a fixed paragraph shape: a claim about the text, a specific reference or short quotation, and a sentence explaining how that feature produces an effect on the reader. Answer only the question asked - underline its key words on the question paper and check each paragraph against them. Before the exam, prepare a one-page plan per set text with theme, character, structure and language headings and two references under each.
Handles oral material in the syllabus - praise poetry, riddles, folktales, songs - as if it were a written short story, discussing it only for plot and moral, ignoring repetition, formulaic openings, call-and-response, audience participation, improvisation and performance context, and treating a transcribed text as a fixed authored work.
Candidates have far more exposure to written prose than to performed oral genres and unconsciously apply the only analytical vocabulary they own. The transcript on the page hides the fact that performance features are part of the text's meaning, so nothing prompts the candidate to discuss them.
What to do instead
Keep a short checklist for oral texts - performer and audience roles, occasion, formulaic openings and closings, repetition and refrain, rhythm and delivery, variation between performances - and answer with at least two items from it in every response on an oral text. When studying, listen to a recording if one is available and note what the transcription loses, then use those notes as evidence in your answer.
In the oral assessment, delivers a memorised monologue that does not answer the question actually asked, drops the clicks and flattens the tone when reading aloud or speaking, and cannot respond when the examiner asks a follow-up question or the discussion moves to an unprepared topic.
Rehearsed material feels like the safest route and is often what has been practised in class, while unprepared interaction is what candidates fear most. Reading aloud under stress also pulls attention to meaning rather than articulation, so pronunciation features that carry meaning are the first to go.
What to do instead
Prepare topics as a set of points and examples rather than a script, so the wording is produced live each time. Record yourself reading a short passage and a two-minute answer, then listen once only for clicks and tone and once only for whether the question was answered. Practise with a partner who asks one unplanned follow-up question after every answer, and build a few stock repair phrases so an unexpected question becomes a chance to ask, clarify and then answer rather than to stop.