Watter ornament sou jy kies?

Watter means which. It is used when you are choosing from a set of possible things.

So in Watter ornament sou jy kies?, the speaker is asking which ornament out of some available options.

By contrast, wat usually means what:

• Wat is dit? = What is that?

A simple way to remember it:

• watter = which one / which kind
• wat = what

Afrikaans often puts the question word or question phrase first in a direct question.

Here, Watter ornament is the full question phrase:

• Watter = which
• ornament = ornament

So the sentence literally begins with Which ornament ...?

That is very similar to English:

• Which ornament would you choose?

Sou is the word that gives the idea of would.

So:

• sou jy kies = would you choose

It often makes the question sound:

• hypothetical
• less direct
• more polite
• more like asking for preference

Compare:

• Watter ornament kies jy? = Which ornament are you choosing / do you choose?
• Watter ornament sou jy kies? = Which ornament would you choose?

So sou adds that would meaning, just like in English.

This is because Afrikaans follows a verb-second pattern in main clauses and direct questions.

In this sentence:

• Watter ornament = first element
• sou = the finite verb, so it comes second
• jy = the subject, so it comes after the finite verb

Pattern:

• Question phrase + finite verb + subject + rest

So:

• Watter ornament sou jy kies?

Not:

• Watter ornament jy sou kies? for a normal direct question

That second version would sound wrong as a direct question.

Because sou is the auxiliary verb, and in Afrikaans the main verb usually goes to the end of the clause when there is an auxiliary.

So:

• sou = would
• kies = choose

This is a very common Afrikaans pattern:

• Ek sal dit doen. = I will do it.
• Hy kan kom. = He can come.
• Watter ornament sou jy kies? = Which ornament would you choose?

So the final verb position is normal here.

Jy is usually the informal singular word for you.

So this sentence most naturally means you are speaking to one person in an everyday way:

• Watter ornament sou jy kies?

If you are speaking to more than one person, Afrikaans often uses julle:

• Watter ornament sou julle kies? = Which ornament would you all choose?

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

• Watter ornament sou u kies? = Which ornament would you choose?

Yes, ornament is used in Afrikaans. It is a learned/formal word and looks very similar to English because the languages share many words of European origin.

Depending on context, Afrikaans speakers might also use other words, such as:

• versiering = decoration
• Kersversiering = Christmas decoration

So ornament is understandable and correct, but in everyday speech, another word may sometimes sound more natural depending on what kind of ornament you mean.

No. You do not use 'n here.

That is the same as in English:

• Which ornament would you choose? not
• Which an ornament would you choose?

Since watter already specifies the noun, no article is needed:

• Watter ornament ...

Yes, absolutely.

Watter een means which one.

So if the context already makes it clear that you are talking about ornaments, you can say:

• Watter een sou jy kies? = Which one would you choose?

That sounds natural when the noun does not need to be repeated.

Compare:

• Watter ornament sou jy kies? = more explicit
• Watter een sou jy kies? = more compact, if the context is already clear

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Watter ≈ VUH-ter
• ornament ≈ OR-na-ment
• sou ≈ soh / so-oo
• jy ≈ something like yay, but shorter and less English-sounding
• kies ≈ kees

So the whole sentence is roughly:

VUH-ter OR-na-ment soh yay kees?

A few helpful pronunciation notes:

• Afrikaans w is pronounced like an English v
• Afrikaans j is pronounced like English y
• ie in kies sounds like ee

Yes, it is grammatical and natural, especially if you are asking someone for a preference among several ornaments.

That said, the exact noun may change depending on context. In everyday speech, people might sometimes choose a more specific or common word than ornament.

But the sentence structure itself is very natural:

• Watter ornament sou jy kies?

It is a good model for similar questions, such as:

• Watter boek sou jy kies? = Which book would you choose?
• Watter kleur sou jy kies? = Which colour would you choose?
• Watter een sou jy kies? = Which one would you choose?