Grade 12 English First Additional Language Past Papers and Memos

The topics, the marks and the time you get, from the Department of Basic Education's examination guidelines for English First Additional Language. Know this before you sit down with a paper and you will know what a good mark should feel like.

Paper 1: Language in context

80 marks, 2 hours

Comprehension: 30 marks
Summary: 10 marks
Language in context: 40 marks

Paper 2: Literature

70 marks, 2½ hours

Novel: 35 marks
Drama: 35 marks
Short stories: 35 marks

Each section is worth 35 marks and you answer two of them, based on the set works your school chose.

Paper 3: Writing

100 marks, 2½ hours

Essay: 50 marks
Longer transactional text: 30 marks
Shorter transactional text: 20 marks

How hard is Grade 12 English First Additional Language?

Out of every 10 learners who wrote English First Additional Language, about 9 got 40% or more.

618 678 learners wrote English First Additional Language in 2025. 1 of the 9 subjects on this site are passed more often than this one.

Use that when you mark your own paper. Under 30% is a fail. 30% to 39% is a pass, but it shuts you out of most courses after school. 40% and up means you did better than about half the country.

National English First Additional Language results, 2021 to 2025
Year	Wrote the exam	Got 30% or more	Got 40% or more
2025	618 678	99.4%	92.4%
2024	583 624	99.7%	94.3%
2023	574 968	99.6%	93.3%
2022	609 901	99.2%	92.1%
2021	592 008	98.9%	89.4%

National results for the October and November papers, from the Department of Basic Education's 2025 NSC Diagnostic Report.

All Grade 12 subjects When each paper is written

Grade 12 English First Additional Language past paper questions

Where can I download Grade 12 English First Additional Language past papers and memos?

On this page. There are 142 Grade 12 English First Additional Language past papers here, from 2014 to 2026, and they come with their memos. Some people call them exam papers or previous question papers. They are the same thing. Every one is a free PDF and none of them ask you to sign up.

Are the Grade 12 English First Additional Language trial or prelim papers here?

Yes. Look under September in each year. The September papers are the trial exams. Some schools call them prelims and some call them preparatory exams. Each province sets its own, so you can practise on more than one.

Do the papers come with memos?

Yes. The memo, which is the marking guideline the examiners use, sits on the same row as the paper it belongs to, so you download the two together rather than hunting for them separately.

Which provinces are these English First Additional Language papers from?

The Department of Basic Education, the Eastern Cape, the Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and North West. Every paper here was set by an education department. Some departments put their papers online, and we take those from the department. Others do not, so we find their papers elsewhere and check each one against its cover before we add it. If you cannot find your province, a national paper is set to the same CAPS curriculum and is just as good to practise on.

What topics are in Grade 12 English First Additional Language Paper 1?

Paper 1 is out of 80 marks and you get 2 hours to write it. It covers 3 areas: Comprehension; Summary; Language in context. The marks for each one are set out above.

Which term are these English First Additional Language papers from?

Every term the department published one for. Term 4 is the November exams, Term 3 is the September exams, Term 2 is the May/June exams, Term 1 is the Feb/March exams. Each paper in the list is labelled both ways, so it does not matter whether your school talks in terms or in months.

Are these IEB papers?

No. These are NSC papers, set by the Department of Basic Education and the provinces for the government curriculum, CAPS. If you are at an IEB school the content overlaps a great deal, but the papers are set separately and are not on this page.

Which paper should I start with?

The newest one. Start with 2026 and work backwards. The examiners who set the most recent papers are the ones setting yours, and how they word a question matters as much as what it is about.

Verified against DBE and provincial education department papers

Published 16 Apr 2026 · Updated 06 Oct 2026 by NavyBlue Editorial Team

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