Learn Dutch: Het kind is bang voor de hond. - The child is afraid of the dog.

Just like certain verbs have fixed prepositions, adjectives do too! In Dutch, the adjective bang (afraid) is always paired with the preposition voor. Even though voor usually means "for", the fixed combination bang voor translates to "afraid of" in English.

Why do we use het for kind but de for hond?

This is a quick reminder about Dutch articles. Kind (child) is a neuter noun, so it takes het. Hond (dog) is a common noun, so it takes de. Because there are no strict rules for which article a word gets, it is best to memorize the article along with the noun.

Does bang translate to "scared" or "afraid"?

It means both! Dutch does not make a strict difference between being scared and being afraid. You can translate is bang voor as either "is afraid of" or "is scared of".

If I want to say "the child is afraid to swim", do I still use voor?

No, you only use voor when someone is afraid of a noun (like de hond). If someone is afraid to do an action, you drop voor and use om te plus the verb. For example: Het kind is bang om te zwemmen (The child is afraid to swim).