okurigana

Noun

Meaning

okurigana (plural okurigana)

In the Japanese language, the kana written after a kanji. For example, the -べる in 食べる.

Synonyms

Examples

For a kanji in isolation without okurigana, it is typically read using their kun'yomi, though there are numerous exceptions. Source: Internet

Hiragana is used to write native Japanese words with no kanji representation (or whose kanji is thought obscure or difficult), as well as grammatical elements such as particles and inflections ( okurigana ). Source: Internet

Kun readings may further have a separator to indicate which characters are okurigana, and which are considered readings of the character itself. Source: Internet

Occasionally okurigana coincide with the phonetic (rebus) component of phono-semantic Chinese characters, which reflects that they fill the same role of phonetic complement. Source: Internet

They are used even when the inflection of the stem can be determined by a following inflectional suffix, so the primary function of okurigana for many kanji is that of a phonetic complement. Source: Internet

When reading Japanese, one primarily recognizes words (multiple characters and okurigana) and their readings, rather than individual characters, and only guess readings of characters when trying to "sound out" an unrecognized word. Source: Internet

Close letter words and terms