Draai ons nou om?

Because this is a yes/no question in Afrikaans. In main-clause yes/no questions, the finite verb usually comes first.

• Statement: Ons draai nou om. — We are turning around now.
• Question: Draai ons nou om? — Are we turning around now?

So the word order is similar to English inversion in questions like Are we leaving now?

Here, ons means we.

Afrikaans uses ons for both we and us, so the function depends on the sentence structure.

In Draai ons nou om?, ons is the subject, so it means we.

Examples:

• Ons loop huis toe. — We are walking home.
• Hy sien ons. — He sees us.

Here, om is part of the verb draai om, which means turn around.

So this is not just draai by itself. The full idea is:

• draai om = turn around

Afrikaans often has separable verbs, where one part appears earlier and another part appears later in the sentence.

So:

• Ons draai om. — We turn around / We are turning around.
• Draai ons nou om? — Are we turning around now?

No, not in this sentence.

Afrikaans om can have different jobs, depending on context. For example:

• as part of a verb: draai om = turn around
• as a marker in structures like om te = to / in order to

In Draai ons nou om?, om belongs to the verb draai om. It does not mean to here.

Nou means now, and its position here is very natural in Afrikaans.

The basic structure is:

• Draai (verb)
• ons (subject)
• nou (time word)
• om (the separated verb particle)

So the sentence is built around the separable verb draai om, with nou placed before the final particle om.

This placement sounds normal and idiomatic:

• Ons draai nou om.
• Draai ons nou om?

It is much less natural in ordinary Afrikaans.

The usual order is:

• Draai ons nou om?

Putting nou after om would sound marked or unnatural in most everyday contexts, because om is the final particle of the separable verb and usually stays at the end.

So for a learner, the best pattern to remember is:

• verb + subject + time expression + particle

It is present tense.

Afrikaans verbs do not change much for person, so draai can mean:

• turn
• am turning
• are turning
• do turn

The exact English translation depends on context.

So Draai ons nou om? could be understood as:

• Are we turning around now?
• Do we turn around now?

In many real situations, the first one sounds more natural in English.

Because Afrikaans does not form questions the same way English does.

English often needs an auxiliary:

• Do we turn around now?
• Are we turning around now?

Afrikaans can often ask the same kind of question just by putting the main verb first:

• Draai ons nou om?

So Afrikaans does not need a separate helper verb here.

By itself, Draai ons nou om? most naturally asks whether we are turning around now or whether this is the moment we turn around.

If you clearly want should, Afrikaans would more often say:

• Moet ons nou omdraai? — Should we turn around now?

So Draai ons nou om? is more direct and neutral, while Moet ons nou omdraai? clearly asks about obligation or what the right thing to do is.

Because omdraai is the same verb in a different form.

Afrikaans separable verbs often appear:

• split in main clauses:
  Ons draai om.
• together in infinitives or some other structures:
  ons wil omdraai — we want to turn around

So both are correct, depending on the grammar:

• Draai ons nou om?
• Ons gaan nou omdraai.

A rough guide:

• Draai sounds a bit like dry
• ons sounds somewhat like ons in British-style bronze without the br, though exact pronunciation varies by accent
• nou sounds like English now
• om sounds roughly like om in Tom, but with an Afrikaans vowel

A very rough learner-friendly approximation might be:

• dry ons now om

But it is best to listen to native audio, because Afrikaans vowels are important and can differ from English ones.