are kana suffixes following kanji stems in Japanese written words. They serve two purposes: to inflect adjectives and verbs, and to force a particular kanji to have a specific meaning and be read a certain way. For example, the plain verb form (miru, "see") inflects to past tense (mita, "saw"), where is the kanji stem, and る and た are okurigana, written in hiragana script. With very few exceptions, okurigana are used only with kun'yomi (native Japanese readings), not with on'yomi (Chinese readings), as Chinese morphemes do not inflect in Japanese, and their pronunciation is inferred from context, since many are used as parts of compound words (kango).
When used to inflect an adjective or verb, okurigana can indicate aspect (perfective versus imperfective), affirmative or negative meaning, or grammatical politeness, among many other functions. In modern usage, okurigana are almost invariably written with hiragana; katakana were also commonly used in the past.
English analogues Analogous orthographic conventions find occasional use in English, which, being more familiar, help in understanding okurigana.
As an inflection example, when writing Xing for cross-ing, as in Ped Xing (pedestrian crossing), the -ing is a verb suffix, while cross is the dictionary form of the verb – in this case cross is the reading of the character X, while -ing is analogous to okurigana. By contrast, in the noun Xmas for Christmas, the character Χ is instead read as Christ (it is actually a chi in origin, from the Greek Χριστός, Khristós). The suffixes serve as phonetic complements to indicate which reading to use.
Another common example is in ordinal and cardinal numbers – "1" is read as one, while "1st" is read as fir-st.
Note that word, morpheme (constituent part of word), and reading may be distinct: in "1", "one" is at once the word, the morpheme, and the reading, while in "1st", the word and the morpheme are "first", while the reading is fir, as the -st is written separately, and in "Xmas" the word is "Christmas" while the morphemes are Christ and -mas, and the reading "Christ" coincides with the first morpheme.
Inflection examples
Adjectives in Japanese use okurigana to indicate aspect and affirmation-negation, with all adjectives using the same pattern of suffixes for each case. A simple example uses the character (high) to express the four basic cases of a Japanese adjective. The root meaning of the word is expressed via the kanji (, read taka and meaning "high" in each of these cases), but crucial information (aspect and negation) can only be understood by reading the okurigana following the kanji stem.
(takai) High (positive, imperfective), meaning "[It is] expensive" or "[It is] high" (takakunai) High (negative, imperfective), meaning "[It is] not expensive/high" (takakatta) High (positive, perfective), meaning "[It was] expensive/high" (takakunakatta) High (negative, perfective), meaning "[It was not] expensive/high"
Japanese verbs follow a similar pattern; the root meaning is generally expressed by using one or more kanji at the start of the word, with aspect, negation, grammatical politeness, and other language features expressed by following okurigana.
(taberu) Eat (positive, imperfective, direct politeness), meaning "[I/you/etc.] eat" (tabenai) Eat (negative, imperfective, direct), meaning "[I/you/etc.] do not eat" (tabeta) Eat (positive, perfective, direct), meaning "[I/you/etc.] ate/have eaten" (tabenakatta) Eat (negative, perfective, direct), meaning "[I/you/etc.] did not eat/have not eaten"
Compare the direct polite verb forms to their distant forms, which follow a similar pattern, but whose meaning indicates more distance between the speaker and the listener:
(tabemasu) Eat (positive, imperfective, distant politeness), meaning "[My group/your group] eats" (tabemasen) Eat (negative, imperfective, distant), meaning "[My group/your group] does not eat" (tabemashita) Eat (positive, perfective, distant), meaning "[My group/your group] ate/has eaten" (tabemasen deshita) Eat (negative, perfective, distant), meaning "[My group/your group] did not eat/has not eaten"
Disambiguation of kanji Okurigana are also used as phonetic complements to disambiguate kanji that have multiple readings, and consequently multiple meanings. Since kanji, especially the most common ones, can be used for words with many (usually similar) meanings — but different pronunciations — key okurigana placed after the kanji help the reader to know which meaning and reading were intended. Both individual kanji and multi-kanji words may have multiple readings, and okurigana are used in both cases.
Okurigana for disambiguation are a partial gloss, and are required: for example, in , the stem is (and does not vary under inflection), and is pronounced (kudasa) – thus corresponds to the reading くだ (kuda), followed by (sa), which is written here kuda-sa. Note the okurigana are not considered part of the reading; grammatically the verb is kudasa-ru (verb stem + inflectional suffix), but orthographically the stem itself is analyzed as kuda-sa (kanji reading + okurigana). Compare with furigana, which specify the reading of the kanji, appear outside the line of the text, and which are omitted if understood.
Disambiguation examples include common verbs which use the characters (up) and (down):
(a) (a-garu) "to ascend/to make ready/to complete", and (a-geru) "to raise, to give (upwards)" (nobo) (nobo-ru) "to go up/to climb (a set of stairs)", and (nobo-su) "serve food, raise a matter (uncommon)" (kuda) (kuda-saru) "to give [to the speaker from a superior]", and (kuda-ru) "to be handed down [intransitive]" (o) (o-riru) "to get off/to descend" and (o-rosu) "to let off (transitive)" (sa) (sa-garu) "to dangle (intransitive)", and (sa-geru) "to hang, to lower (transitive)"
Observe that many Japanese verbs come in transitive/intransitive pairs, as illustrated above, and that a single kanji reading is shared between the two verbs, with sufficient okurigana written to reflect changed endings. The above okurigana are as short as possible, given this restriction – note for instance that (noboru) / (nobosu) are written as / , not as or , while must be written as to share a kanji reading with .
Another example includes a common verb with different meanings based on the okurigana: (hana-su) "to speak/to talk". Example: (chanto hanasu hō ga ii), meaning "It's better if you speak correctly." (hana-shi) noun form of the verb hanasu, "to speak". Example: (hanashi kotoba to kaki kotoba), meaning "spoken words and written words". (hanashi) noun, meaning "a story" or "a talk". Example: (hanashi wa ikaga?), meaning "How about a story?"
Okurigana are not always sufficient to specify the reading. For example, (to become angry) can be read as (ika-ru) or (oko-ru) – and are not used – (to open) may be read either as (a-ku) or as (hira-ku) – is not used – and may be read either as (to-meru) or as (ya-meru) – is not used. In such cases the reading must be deduced from context or via furigana.
Ambiguity may be introduced in inflection – even if okurigana specify the reading in the base (dictionary) form of a verb, the inflected form may obscure it. For example, i-ku "go" and okona-u "perform, carry out" are distinct in dictionary form, but in past ("perfective") form become i-tta "went" and okona-tta "performed, carried out" – which reading to use must be deduced from context or furigana.
One of the most complex examples of okurigana is the kanji , pronounced shō or sei in borrowed Chinese vocabulary, which stands for several native Japanese words as well: nama 'raw' or ki 'pure/unprocessed' o-u 'grow/spring up' i-kiru 'live' i-kasu 'make use of (experience, skills)' i-keru 'arrange (flowers)' u-mu 'bear (child)/produce' u-mareru/uma-reru 'be born' ha-eru 'grow' (intransitive) ha-yasu 'grow' (transitive) as well as the hybrid Chinese-Japanese words shō-jiru 'occur', which is a modification of shō-zuru (single character + (rendaku of する)) Note that some of these verbs share a kanji reading (i, u, and ha), and okurigana are conventionally picked to maximize these sharings.
Multi-character words Okurigana may also be used in multi-kanji words, where the okurigana specifies the pronunciation of the entire word, not simply the character that they follow; these distinguish multi-kanji native words from kango (borrowed Chinese words) with the same characters. Examples include nouns such as kikubari "care, consideration" versus kehai "indication, hint, sign" (note that the reading of changes between ki and ke, despite it not having an okurigana of its own), and verbs, such as hayaru "be popular, be fashionable", versus ryūkō "fashion". Note that in this later case, the native verb and the borrowed Chinese word with the same kanji have approximately the same meaning, but are pronounced differently.
Okurigana can also occur in the middle of a compound, such as ochiba "fallen leaves" and rakuyō "fallen leaves, defoliation" – note that the reading of the terminal changes between ba and yō despite it occurring after the okurigana.
Historical suffixes
For a few categories of words, okurigana correspond to historical suffixes which are no longer distinct or productive, and the suffix is now fused to the word, but still written in hiragana. This is particularly the case for words which function as adjectives, with notable categories including: -shii adjectives, such as ure-shii "happy" -yaka na adjectives, such as nigi-yaka(na) "bustling, busy" -raka na adjectives, such as aki-raka(na) "clear, obvious" -taru adjectives, such as dōdō-taru "magnificent, stately" -naru adjectives, such as tan-naru "mere, simple" Note that only the -i in -shii inflects; the other kana are invariant, and in practice serve only for disambiguation and to reflect historical grammar. Briefly, -shii adjectives used to be a different class from -i adjectives (distinguished historically as -ku and -shiku adjectives, for present -i and -shii), but have since merged; -yaka and -raka used to be suffixes, but are no longer productive, while -taru and -naru are historical variants of what is now the adjective particle -na. See Japanese adjectives for details.
Informal rules Verbs
The okurigana for group I verbs ( godan dōshi, also known as u-verbs) usually begin with the final mora of the dictionary form of the verb. no-mu to drink, itada-ku to receive, yashina-u to cultivate, ne-ru to twist
For group II verbs ( ichidan dōshi, also known as ru-verbs) the okurigana begin at the mora preceding the last, unless the word is only two morae long. samata-geru to prevent, ta-beru to eat, shi-meru to comprise, ne-ru to sleep, ki-ru to wear
If the verb has different variations, such as transitive and intransitive forms, then the different morae are written in kana, while the common part constitutes a single common kanji reading for all related words. shi-meru to close (transitive), shi-maru to close (intransitive) – in both cases the reading of is shi. o-chiru to fall, o-tosu to drop – in both cases the reading of is o.
In other cases (different verbs with similar meanings, but which are not strictly variants of each other), the kanji will have different readings, and the okurigana thus also indicate which reading to use. obiya-kasu to threaten (mentally), odo-su to threaten (physically)
Adjectives
Most adjectives ending in -i (true adjectives) have okurigana starting from the -i. yasu-i, taka-i, aka-i
Okurigana starts from shi for adjectives ending in -shii (this reflects historical grammar; see above). tano-shii, ichijiru-shii, mazu-shii
Exceptions occur when the adjective also has a related verbal form. In this case, as with related verbs (above), the reading of the character is kept constant, and the okurigana are exactly the morae that differ. atata-meru (verb), atata-kai (adjective) – in both cases is read atata.