De asielhond gromt alsof hij bang is.

Asielhond is a compound noun:

• asiel = shelter / refuge
• hond = dog

In everyday Dutch, asielhond usually means a dog from an animal shelter, often what English speakers call a shelter dog or rescue dog.

A useful thing to know is that Dutch often builds long nouns this way by joining words together.

Because the grammatical gender of a Dutch compound is determined by its last word.

Here, the last word is hond, and hond is a de-word:

• de hond
• so: de asielhond

Even though asiel by itself is het asiel, that does not control the article here.

Grommen is the infinitive, meaning to growl.

In the sentence, the subject is de asielhond, which is third person singular, so Dutch uses the present tense form:

• infinitive: grommen
• stem: grom
• 3rd person singular: gromt

So:

• ik grom
• jij gromt
• hij/zij/het gromt

Alsof means as if or as though.

It introduces a comparison:

• De asielhond gromt = The shelter dog growls
• alsof hij bang is = as if he is afraid

So the full sentence means that the dog is growling in a way that makes it seem afraid.

Because alsof introduces a subordinate clause, and in Dutch subordinate clauses the finite verb usually goes to the end.

So:

• main clause: De asielhond gromt
• subordinate clause: alsof hij bang is

Compare:

• main clause: Hij is bang.
• subordinate clause: ... alsof hij bang is.

That final is is very typical Dutch subordinate-clause word order.

Dutch often uses hij or zij/ze for animals when the animal is treated as an individual, especially if its sex is known or assumed.

So:

• male dog: hij
• female dog: zij / ze

In practice, speakers sometimes use hij quite naturally for a dog even when they are not emphasizing the sex very much.

Yes, bang is an adjective meaning afraid.

Here it is used predicatively, after zijn:

• hij is bang = he is afraid

When Dutch adjectives are used this way, they usually do not take an ending.

Compare:

• de hond is bang → predicative, no ending
• de bange hond → before the noun, so it gets -e

So bang stays plain in hij bang is.

Usually no. Modern Dutch normally just uses the ordinary verb form:

• alsof hij bang is

English sometimes uses a special form like were in very formal or literary style, but Dutch generally does not do that here. The normal indicative form is the standard choice.

It is related, yes, but the meaning depends on context.

In Dutch:

• asiel can mean asylum/refuge
• dierenasiel means animal shelter
• asielhond therefore means a dog from a shelter

So in this sentence, asiel is about an animal shelter, not political asylum.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

duh ah-SHEEL-hont gromt al-SOF hye bang iss

A few notes:

• asielhond has stress on -siel-
• gromt ends in a clear t
• hij sounds roughly like hye
• bang has the Dutch ng sound, like in English sing

This is only an approximation, but it helps with getting the rhythm of the sentence.