Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 3: 12/18

かなI wonder

Structure

Sentence + かな

Details

  • Standard

About かな

Originally a mixture of the sentence ending particles か, and な, かな evolved over time to become its own (singular) sentence ending particle, which roughly translates as 'I wonder if (A)?'.

As it is a sentence ending particle, かな can be added to the end of almost any sentence. However, in the case of な-adjectives, both だ and です will usually be omitted, with かな simply following the word stem itself.

Combining the meanings か and な, we can see where かな gets its original meaning. か presents questions (usually to other people), while な shows that a statement is related purely to the speaker's own thoughts/opinions. In this way, かな expresses that the speaker's own thoughts are being questioned.

Fun Fact

In the past, かな was thought of as being a fairly feminine way to express 'I wonder', and males tended to use phrases like だろうか to express the same type of statement. However, in modern day Japanese, かな is used by both men and women equally.

Related

Examples

--:--

    もうすぐ食(た)べに行(い)くかな。

    I wonder if we will go eat soon...

    明日(あした)は運動(うんどう)をした方(ほう)がいいかな。

    I wonder, if I should exercise tomorrow...

    今週末(こんしゅうまつ)に友達(ともだち)と会(あ)えるかな。

    I wonder if I can meet my friends this weekend...

    冷蔵庫(れいぞうこ)にケーキまだあるかな。

    I wonder if there is still cake in the fridge.

    お母(かあ)さんは何(なに)をくれるかな。

    I wonder what my mom will give me.

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かな – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (11 in total)

  • LucasSerafim

    LucasSerafim

    I also got very confused with the の used with some of the examples =/.
    I could not tell where it came from. At first I thought it was nominalization, but it doesn´t seen to be the case.

  • John-Bunpro

    John-Bunpro

    Just to clarify here, the の in のかな is the same as the one in the so-called ‘explanatory’ or ‘contextual’ -んです-のです grammar point (which also is technically a nominalizer or ‘dummy noun’, but it’s a specific usage of it).

    This can be a tricky point to understand because it doesn’t necessarily show up in a natural English translation, but the point is that it’s always connecting what’s being said to something in the larger context.

    A relatively straightforward example I like to use is: say you’re at the office and need to ask a co-worker something. If he seems busy typing something at his computer and you genuinely weren’t sure if it was okay or not, you might say, あっ、すみません。ちょっといいですか？ (or ちょっといいかな？ if you were relatively close friends as well as co-workers and around the same age).

    On the other hand, if you approached him, and he notic...

  • thelizard

    thelizard

    I feel like this will be a really dumb post. Sorry in advance

    I am currently in Japan and have visited various concafes and similar places in the past days to practice speaking. Honestly I recommend it. I think I got a years worth of slang learning out of those past couple of weeks. Plus, you get to see cute costumes and sick makeup skills.

    anyway.

    It happened more than once, that someone in this context added かな at the end of a suggestion / proposal / choice sort of situation where there was absolutely nothing to wonder about.

    Me asking about a preference when it came to make a choice such as “which drink would you like” or similar, to which she replied “Aがいいかな” but there was nothing to wonder about because she works there and probably knows her preferences from the menu by now.

    The most similar thing I find on bunpro, is the example sentence with the exercise:

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