okurigana

Okurigana, or 送り仮名, are kana characters that follow a kanji to complete the inflection of a word in written Japanese. They indicate the grammatical ending and often help determine the word’s part of speech and reading, while the kanji provides the core meaning.

Okurigana are most commonly attached to verbs and i-adjectives; they show the conjugation when the word changes form. For example: 食べる (kanji 食 plus okurigana べる), 読む (読 plus む), 行く (行 plus く), 高い (高 plus い), 大きい (大 plus きい). When the word is conjugated, the okurigana are followed by additional suffixes, as in 食べます, 読みます, 行きます, 高くない, 大きかった.

Okurigana and furigana serve different roles. Okurigana encode grammar and the inflected pronunciation of the word, whereas furigana (the reading guides placed above or beside kanji) indicate how to pronounce the characters. They can appear together on the same word, but they convey distinct information.

Historically, okurigana usage has been codified through orthographic rules and dictionaries. In modern standard Japanese, okurigana patterns are generally consistent, but there are irregularities and exceptions, especially with irregular verbs and certain compound words. Overall, okurigana play a key part in how Japanese shows tense, aspect, negation, and other grammatical categories in writing.