Ons gaan die vlugstatus na.

In this sentence, gaan is not just the ordinary verb to go and it is not mainly acting as a future marker. It is the conjugated part of the separable verb nagaan, which means to check / verify / look into.

So Ons gaan die vlugstatus na is built from nagaan:

• gaan = the finite verb part
• na = the separable particle

That is why the sentence can look confusing to English speakers.

If you really wanted We are going to check the flight status, you would normally say:

• Ons gaan die vlugstatus nagaan.

There, gaan is the future-like helper verb, and nagaan stays together at the end.

Because nagaan is a separable verb.

In a normal main clause, the finite part goes near the beginning of the sentence, and the particle moves to the end:

• dictionary form: nagaan
• main clause: Ons gaan die vlugstatus na.

So the sentence is not Ons nagaan die vlugstatus. Afrikaans splits the verb in this structure.

The full verb is nagaan.

That is the form you would look up in a dictionary. A learner may see gaan and think only of to go, but here gaan ... na belongs together as one verb: nagaan.

Because Afrikaans verbs usually have very little conjugation.

Unlike English, which has forms like I go vs he goes, Afrikaans normally keeps the same present-tense form for all persons:

• ek gaan
• jy gaan
• ons gaan
• hulle gaan

So ons does not require a special verb ending.

die is the definite article, meaning the.

Afrikaans does not change the article for gender the way some other languages do. So die is used very broadly:

• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kinders = the children

So die vlugstatus simply means the flight status.

Yes. Afrikaans often writes compound nouns as a single word.

Here:

• vlug = flight
• status = status

Together:

• vlugstatus = flight status

This is very normal in Afrikaans.

The structure is:

• Ons = subject
• gaan = finite verb
• die vlugstatus = object
• na = separated particle

So the pattern is:

subject + finite verb + object + particle

That is a common Afrikaans pattern when a separable verb is used in a main clause.

Afrikaans usually uses double negation with nie ... nie:

• Ons gaan nie die vlugstatus na nie.

Notice two things:

1. the first nie comes after the finite verb
2. the second nie comes at the end of the clause

Also notice that the particle na stays before the final nie.

A very common past form in Afrikaans is the perfect with het plus a past participle:

• Ons het die vlugstatus nagegaan.

Here the verb is no longer split the same way as in the main-clause present tense. Instead you get the participle nagegaan.

So compare:

• present: Ons gaan die vlugstatus na.
• past: Ons het die vlugstatus nagegaan.

In a subordinate clause, the verb is typically written together again as nagaan:

• ... dat ons die vlugstatus nagaan

So this is another clue that gaan ... na belongs to one separable verb.

Compare:

• main clause: Ons gaan die vlugstatus na.
• subordinate clause: ... dat ons die vlugstatus nagaan

Yes. ons can correspond to both we and us, depending on its role in the sentence.

Here it is the subject, so it means we:

• Ons gaan die vlugstatus na. = We check the flight status.

In another sentence, it could mean us, depending on the grammar.