Is jou rugsak swaar?

In Afrikaans, yes/no questions usually put the finite verb first. The statement would be Jou rugsak is swaar. To turn it into a question, Afrikaans moves is to the front:

Jou rugsak is swaar. = Your backpack is heavy.
Is jou rugsak swaar? = Is your backpack heavy?

Jy means you when it is the subject of the sentence.
Jou means your.

For example:

Jy is moeg. = You are tired.
Jou rugsak is swaar. = Your backpack is heavy.

So in Is jou rugsak swaar?, jou shows possession.

Because jou already works as a determiner, just like your in English. English says your backpack, not your the backpack. Afrikaans works the same way:

jou rugsak = your backpack

So no extra article is needed.

Rugsak is a compound noun:

• rug = back
• sak = bag / sack

So it literally means something like back-bag, which corresponds to backpack.

Compound nouns are very common in Afrikaans, so this is a useful pattern to notice.

Because swaar is the adjective describing the backpack, and it comes after the linking verb is in this kind of sentence.

The basic structure is:

is + subject + adjective

So:

Is jou rugsak swaar?

This is very similar to English:

Is your backpack heavy?

No. In this sentence, swaar stays in its basic form because it is being used after the verb is.

So you simply say:

Die rugsak is swaar.
Is jou rugsak swaar?

For a learner, the important thing here is that nothing extra gets added to swaar in this sentence.

The stress is on the first syllable: RUG-sak.

The trickiest part for English speakers is the g sound in rug. In Afrikaans, it is usually a guttural sound, similar to the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach. English does not normally have this sound, so it can take practice.

A rough learner-friendly approximation is ruch-sak, but listening to native audio is the best way to get it right.

A rough approximation is svahr.

A few pronunciation notes:

• sw is close to English sw
• aa is a long vowel
• r is pronounced more clearly than in many English accents

It will not match English exactly, so hearing a native speaker is very helpful.

A simple positive answer is:

Ja, dit is swaar. = Yes, it is heavy.

A simple negative answer is:

Nee, dit is nie swaar nie. = No, it is not heavy.

Notice that Afrikaans normally uses double nie in full negative sentences: one nie before the adjective or verb phrase, and another at the end.

Yes. Jou is the normal informal singular word for your, used with jy.

If you want to be more formal or polite, you can use u:

Is u rugsak swaar?

That would be a more polite or formal way to ask the same thing.

No. Afrikaans is much simpler than languages like German or Dutch in this respect. In Is jou rugsak swaar?, you do not have to change the noun or adjective for grammatical gender or case.

That is one reason Afrikaans sentence patterns can feel quite approachable for English speakers.