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In the anime 少女革命ウテナ (Revolutionary Girl Utena) one of the shadow girls often
says

> かしら、かしら。ご存知かしら？

which is translated in the subtitles as "I wonder, I wonder. Do you know what
I wonder?".

I'm familiar with adding かしら after the predicate but I've not come across it
as a standalone word before. Is this usage standard? If someone asks me, for
example, "do you think my cunning plan will work?", and I'm not sure of the
answer, can I just respond with かしら? It feels unlikely to me.

Unrelated, but I also have no idea how ご存知 works in this phrase.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-08T23:59:31.397
83001
2020-12-09T10:56:38.123
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question
usage
Usage of かしら as a standalone phrase
mostly women use the word かしら when they are not sure about a certain thing.
For example 今日は雨が降るかしら？ means i wonder if it rains today. Men would say
今日は雨が降るかな？ in the same situation, if men say かしら at the end of the sentence it
sounds a bit weird. With regard to 「かしら、かしら。ご存知かしら？」 does not make any sense
in terms of grammer. This is a particular phrase that author of this anime
wants to add some unique feature to this particular character like cliche but
as everyday conversation, this does not make sense at all.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-09T00:46:21.653
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2020-12-09T00:46:21.653
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answer
These かしら are meaningless except that they add some rhythm. This pattern is
known as [三三七拍子](http://www.worldfolksong.com/calendar/japan/san-san-
nana.html). Note that those shadow girls talk fairly theatrically, playing the
role similar to western clowns
([video](https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm14748099)), so they don't have to
speak normally. In English, maybe something like "sing- _a-ling-a-ling_ " or
"see you later _alligator_ " is somewhat close to this.

ご存じかしら literally means "(I wonder,) Do you know?", not "Do you know what I
wonder?" But when translating a catchphrase like this, rhythm is more
important than the semantic fidelity, so I don't think the translator made a
mistake.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-09T10:51:30.940
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2020-12-09T10:56:38.123
2020-12-09T10:56:38.123
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answer