"Ho paura che mio figlio non ricordi la nonna."
Translation:I am afraid that my son does not remember his grandmother.
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Does Italian use 'ho paura che...' in the same way as we sometimes use "I'm afraid that..." in English, as a polite way to say something which the listener won't really want to hear? Absolutely nothing to do with actual fear. e.g. I'm afraid that sugar has ants in, I'm afraid you are wrong,I'm afraid he's dead, I'm afraid I've lost the plot etc etc.
The subjunctive stresses a lot of people but one you get in to it is pretty easy as there is so little changes, 1st 2nd and 3rd person are all the same. You just need to learn when to use it, emotion uncertainty etc. The easiest flag to look for is following "che" ho paura che, credo che, and other little words ending in che. Certainty, ie sono sicura che would take the infinitive
I wrote "I fear" instead of I am afraid. That should not be a problem. More likely it was marked wrong because I used the proper English subjunctive form "my son might not remember" instead of Duolingo's present tense translation: "does not remember". Duo is wrong to mark this better translation as incorrect.