Learn Italian: La bambina ha paura di quel cane nero. - The little girl is afraid of that black dog.

In Italian, feelings and physical states like fear, hunger, or being cold are often expressed using the verb avere (to have) instead of essere (to be). So, instead of saying the girl "is" afraid, Italians say she "has fear" (ha paura).

Why is the word di used after paura?

The complete phrase for "to be afraid of" is avere paura di. Just like in English where "afraid" is followed by "of", the Italian word paura (fear) is followed by the preposition di to introduce exactly what the person is scared of.

Why is "that dog" translated as quel cane instead of quello cane?

When used before a noun, the word for "that" changes its ending to match the definite article the noun would normally take. Because cane takes the article il (il cane), the word quello shortens to quel. You only use quello before masculine nouns that would take the article lo (like quello specchio).

Since cane ends in -e, how can we tell if it is masculine or feminine here?

Italian nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine. However, you can spot that cane is masculine in this sentence by looking at the words around it! Both the describing adjective nero (black) and the word quel (that) are in their masculine singular forms to agree with it.