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I'm reading Yotsubato to learn Japanese. On page 98 of Tome 1, Asagi asks
Yotsuba:

> クーラーって 知ってるかなー？

I understand she's asking if Yotsuba knows what an air conditioner is, but I'm
unsure about the nuance brought by the use of か and なー here.

From [Tae Kim's guide](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/question),

> The question marker 「か」 is usually not used with casual speech to make
> actual questions. It is often used to consider whether something is true or
> not. Depending on the context and intonation, it can also be used to make
> rhetorical questions or to express sarcasm. It can sound quite rough so you
> might want to be careful about using 「か」 for questions in the plain casual
> form.

So which is it here? It doesn't seem like she's trying to sound rough or
sarcastic.

Also, is なー here just a way of saying な, itself just a way of saying ね (I'm
still quite confused with all the sentence-ending particles)? What would be
overall an accurate translation of the question?
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2016-07-27T03:13:49.447
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2016-07-27T04:09:07.763
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questions sentence-final-particles
Meaning of かな for asking questions
From WWWJDIC:

> かな ； かなあ
>
>   1. [prt] ▶ (at sentence end) I wonder
>   2. [prt] ▶ (at sentence end) should I? ▶ is it?
>   3. [prt] ▶ (at sentence end) I wish that (with a negative) ▶ I hope that
>

In this context, かな functions as "I wonder...?"

知ってるかなー？ would translate as "I wonder if you know (about)?" It's a more
indirect way to ask than 知ってるか？

As you mentioned, か is used to designate a question. な (or なあ, なー, etc) can be
used at the end of sentences to colloquially indicate wondering.

> そう思っていたなー？ - That's what you thought, huh?

As opposed to

> そう思っていた. - That's what you thought.

Definition Source: WWWJDIC at <http://wwwjdic.com>
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