Translation of "I wonder if you can buy the bread on your way home"

Question

Related to this question where I was suggested to lookup the patterns V(으)ㄹ래요 and V(으)ㄹ게요.

In my understanding, and according to one of my grammar reference these are sentence final endings expressing "willingness", respectively in questions and statements.

Given my former question, mentioned above, and what I just learnt I was trying to translate the following sentence:

I wonder if you can buy the bread on your way home

My attempt

저는 집에 가는길 빵을 살레는지 궁금해요

I explain my reasoning in steps

집에 가는길 : On your way home

빵을 살레요 : Will you buy the bread

저는 집에 가는길 빵을 살레는지 궁금해요: I wonder if you will buy the bread on your way home.

Questions:

1. Is the translation grammatically correct? (Regardless of how natural it sounds)
2. Does it sound natural?

The reason of question 1 is that I am not sure of my combination of (으)ㄹ래요 with the noun modifier 는 together with the indirect question 지 ( so the 레는지 I am not sure).

Answer 1

Your translation is not grammatically correct.

The most natural liberal translation

집에 가는 길에 빵 살 건가요?

Literal translation

저는 당신이 집에 가는 길에 빵을 사려는지 궁금해요.

Your translation is incorrect for the following reasons.

Your use of V"-ㄹ래요" and V'-ㄹ게요" is correct, but they can only occur at the end of a sentence as 'sentence-closing ending'. So, while V"-ㄹ래요" is correct in "Will you buy the bread", it's incorrect in the middle of sentence. When used in the middle of a sentence, V"-려는" be appropriate.

If you're interested in learning more, here's an explanation.

First, you need to understand that "-래요" is a combination of "-래" as a closing ending and "-요" as a respectful ending. You also need to know that '-래' is short for '-라고 해'(or maybe not, but in your usage it is). Next, note that '-라고' is a colloquial expression for '-려고', which is strictly grammatically incorrect(this is where native speakers get confused a lot, too). Finally, when "-려고" is utilized as a formula for another word, it becomes "-려는" with "-는" attached.

And some other awkwardness.

1. Korean often omits the subject. Since you left out "당신"(you), remaining subject "저는" sounds more unnatural.
2. "On your way home" should be translated to "집에 가는 길에"
   (집에 가는 길 = your way home)

Answer 2

Omitting the subject sounds more natural in Korean. Depending on the context and who you're doing a favor, one can develop several translations.

If the person you're asking is a close friend you can say:

집에 오는 길에 빵 사 올래?

More direct and formal translation would be

집에 오는 길에 빵 사 올 수 있는지 궁금합니다.