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- "나는 숲 속의 호랑이를 무서워해요."
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무서워요 can also be translated as 'to be afraid of' when talking about oneself. For example 저는 무서워요 is "I'm scared" rather than "I'm scary".
I wouldn't learn it this way though. Try to imagine when someone says '무서워요' ...
They're really saying> "That thing we are looking at or talking about.... is scary."
It has to do with the particles 제가 무서워요 "I'm scary" 저는 무서워요 "As for me/ To me it is scary" So 무섭다 always means to be scary
As sonnert pointed out, 무섭다 is a descriptive verb (what we call an adjective in English) which generally translates "scary" or "frightening". 무서워하다 is the verb to be scared, frightened, or afraid.
Can this be translated to "I am afraid of tigers in the forest?" If not, why?
Yes, another example of why it would be nice to have context. Also, "in" is not the best literal translation beause of 의 which changes it to what is known as the "genitive" case in some languages. It is often used to show possession in Korean, or, as in this situation, to mean "of." A more accurate translation might be, "I'm afraid of the forest tiger. " or "I'm scared of the tigers of the forest /woods.
"In" is the best translation here because it says "숲 속의 호랑이," and "속" means "inside." So, if you break down the meaning of each particle, what it says is "the tiger (호랑이) of (의) the inside (속) of the forest (숲)," or, more idiomatically, "the tiger in the forest.
If it had just said "숲의 호랑이," then you would be correct.
In this case, 솦 속 is describing the tiger, so 의 is used. Think of it as "the tiger of inside the forest." By saying 솦 속에, it would be a location particle for the whole sentence, thereby modifying the verb, 무서워해요. This would mean that my being afraid is happening inside the forest, which in English would be something more like "In the forest, I'm afraid of the tiger." Because the original English sentence implies that the tiger is inside the forest, rather than my fear being inside the forest, it has to be 솦 속의 to modify the word 호랑이.
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The object clause would be "숲의 호랑이를" for "the forest's tiger." The given clause is "숲 속의 호랑이를" which literally translates to "the inside space of the forest's tiger" or more naturally "the tiger inside of the forest."
I had it "I am afraid of tigers in the wood", which ought to be correct, but it yielded a "wrong" again. The point is: I reckon "wood" (sg.) even more literal than "woods" (sg.; by the use of which the expression gets a bit more general).
숲 is literally translated as forest. Your use of "wood" is most likely being mistaken as the material instead of woods/forest.
"-나는- =숲 속의 호랑이를= /무서워해요/"
-To me- =the tigers within the forest (the forest's interior's tigers)= /are scary/
"I'm in the forest afraid of the tiger"would be something like "나는 숲 속에 있고 호랑이가 무서워요"
