かな details

write + I wonder

kaku kana

I wonder; maybe (wondering aloud)

明日あしたの試合しあい、勝かてるかな。

ashita no shiai, kateru kana.

I wonder if we can win tomorrow's match. casual

早はやく週末しゅうまつにならないかなあ。

hayaku shuumatsu ni naranai kanaa.

I wish the weekend would hurry up and get here. casual

colloquial

Examples

I wonder — thinking a question out loud, addressed to no one in particular

明日あしたの試合しあい、勝かてるかな。

ashita no shiai, kateru kana.

I wonder if we can win tomorrow's match. casual

鍵かぎ、どこに置おいたかな。

kagi, doko ni oita kana.

Now where did I put my keys? casual

この説明せつめいで分わかってもらえるかな。

kono setsumei de wakatte moraeru kana.

I wonder if this explanation will get the point across. casual

I wish; I hope — negative + かな turns wondering into wanting

早はやく週末しゅうまつにならないかなあ。

hayaku shuumatsu ni naranai kanaa.

I wish the weekend would hurry up and get here. casual

Formation

{V}かなattaches to dictionary form
{N}かなattaches to noun
na-adj + かなattaches to na-adjective

Variant notes

かなあ — lengthened vowel drags the wondering out — more wistful, often with the ないかな wish use

Notes

Like its conjecture relatives it swallows だ (雨かな, 大丈夫[だいじょうぶ]かな, never ×雨だかな) and rides plain forms including past (言[い]ったかな). The tail itself never inflects.

Related patterns

Similar

かもしれない
Both hedge at "maybe", but かもしれない asserts the possibility as a statement and scales to any register (かもしれません), while かな asks the same maybe of yourself and stays casual and spoken — no standard polite かな exists; upward, use でしょうか.
だろう
Plain-style conjecture siblings — だろう asserts a likelihood and is the written default, while かな turns the same guess into a question murmured half to oneself; かな is near-exclusively spoken and casual, and its interrogative twin だろうか reads written and stiff where かな reads soft.
でしょう
Both tag a plain sentence with conjecture, but かな turns it into a question addressed to oneself (casual only), while でしょう states a likelihood and is at home in polite speech.