Translating "Bonnie has a cat named Tia"

Question

I have the following sentence I'd like to translate. I'll list all the steps I did so in the correction maybe I can spot more easily what I did wrong.

Bonnie has a cat named Tia

In my attempt I was looking at the sentence above as follow

Bonnie has a cat whose name is Tia.

I did this in steps as I said:

Name is Tia -> 이름는 티아예요

Cat whose name is Tia -> 이름는 티안 거양이 (by using noun modifier (으)ㄴ with the copula 이다)

Bonnie has a cat whose name is Tia -> 바니씨는 이름는 티안 거양이를 있어요

It doesn't feel very natural to me. My first two steps I think are correct obviously I can split the sentence into two, such as:

Bonnie has a cat. The cat is Tia -> 바니씨는 거양이를 있어요. 거양이는 티아예요.

or

Bonnie has a cat. The cat name is Tia -> 비니씨는 거양이를 있어요. 거양이의 이름이는 티이예요.

However, under the assumption that those variations are correct. They don't sound natural to me either.

So what mistakes did I make? How would you translate it (with the relative clause)? What would sound more natural?

Answer 1

You're almost correct in your translation, but I noticed a few errors. Let me try to explain. First, here's how I would suggest translating it:

"Bonnie has a cat named Tia" could be translated into Korean as "보니는 티아라는 이름의 고양이가 있어요."

This literally translates to "Bonnie has a cat of the name Tia."

Breaking it down:

• "보니는" = "Bonnie has"
• "티아라는 이름의" = "of the name Tia"
• "고양이가" = "a cat"
• "있어요" = "has" (or exists)

In Korean, relative clauses (like "named Tia") typically come before the noun they modify ("a cat") unlike in English where they come after. Also, in Korean, existence or possession of an object is expressed with the verb "있다" which is "있어요" in polite form.

Regarding your translations:

• In "바니씨는 이름는 티안 거양이를 있어요", you placed "이름는" (name is) before the name, and "거양이를 있어요" (the cat has) is incorrect because the object marker "를" is not used with "있다" verb. Also, you misspelled the name "티아" as "티안".
• In "바니씨는 거양이를 있어요. 거양이는 티아예요.", "거양이를 있어요" (the cat has) is incorrect because the object marker "를" is not used with "있다" verb.
• In "비니씨는 거양이를 있어요. 거양이의 이름이는 티이예요.", "거양이를 있어요" (the cat has) is incorrect because the object marker "를" is not used with "있다" verb, and you misspelled "티아" as "티이".

I hope this helps!