Okurigana Explained

What okurigana are

Okurigana are kana suffixes that follow the kanji part of a word. The name means something like accompanying kana: 送る (おくる) is to send, and the kana are sent along after the kanji. Today they are written in hiragana. In 見る (みる, to see), the kanji 見 is read み and る is okurigana. In 高い (たかい, high, expensive), 高 is read たか and い is okurigana.

Okurigana belong to words written with a kanji's native Japanese reading, the kunyomi. Words built from Chinese-derived readings, such as 先生 (せんせい, teacher) or 勉強 (べんきょう, study), are written in kanji alone. If the two reading types are new to you, read onyomi vs kunyomi first, because okurigana make much more sense once you can tell them apart.

Why Japanese needs them

Chinese, where kanji come from, does not change the endings of verbs and adjectives, so characters alone can write a whole sentence. Japanese verbs and adjectives do change: to eat, did not eat and let's eat are all forms of one word. The kanji vs hanzi guide covers this difference in more detail. Okurigana solve the problem by keeping the kanji fixed and letting the kana ending change around it.

• 食べる (たべる), eat. 食べない (たべない), do not eat. 食べた (たべた), ate. 食べましょう (たべましょう), let's eat.
• 書く (かく), write. 書かない (かかない), do not write. 書きます (かきます), write (polite). 書いた (かいた), wrote.
• 高い (たかい), high. 高くない (たかくない), not high. 高かった (たかかった), was high.

In each line the kanji and its reading stay the same, and only the hiragana change. That is why 食 is read た in every form of 食べる: the kanji covers the part of the word that never changes.

Okurigana tell you which reading to use

Many kanji have several kunyomi, and the okurigana are often the only clue to which one is meant. 上 and 下 show this well:

• 上 alone is うえ (above). 上がる is あがる (to go up), 上げる is あげる (to raise), and 上る is のぼる (to climb).
• 下 alone is した (below). 下がる is さがる (to go down), 下げる is さげる (to lower), and 下りる is おりる (to come down).
• 生 in 生きる is い (to live), in 生まれる is う (to be born), and in 先生 it is the onyomi せい, with no okurigana at all.

Okurigana can even show the kanji's reading changing inside one verb. 来 is read く in 来る (くる, to come), こ in 来ない (こない, does not come), and き in 来ます (きます, comes). The hiragana after it tell you which sound to use. They do not settle every case, though. 開く can be ひらく or あく (to open), and only context or furigana will tell you which, as covered in what is furigana.

When you meet a kanji followed directly by hiragana, expect a kunyomi. When kanji sit next to each other with no kana between them, an onyomi compound is more likely. It is only a rule of thumb: native words such as 山 (やま, mountain) stand alone with no kana, and some compounds mix reading types.

The official rules, simplified

Where the kanji ends and the okurigana begin is set by 送り仮名の付け方 (Rules for Okurigana), first issued as a cabinet notice in 1973 and partly revised in 1981 and 2010. It is the standard for government writing, newspapers and textbooks, and it has seven general rules. Here they are in plain terms, with examples from the official text:

The rule about words built on another word is the most useful for learners. 生まれる follows 生む, 起こる follows 起きる, and 変わる follows 変える, so once you know the base verb you can usually predict the spelling of its relatives. For ru-verbs, the okurigana usually start one syllable before the final る, as in 考える, 助ける and 食べる. Two-syllable verbs such as 見る (みる) and 着る (きる) only send the る.

Exceptions worth knowing

The official text lists named exceptions to each rule. You do not need to memorise them as a list, but a handful turn up in beginner Japanese:

• Adjectives with longer okurigana: 大きい (おおきい), 小さい (ちいさい), 少ない (すくない), 明るい (あかるい), 冷たい (つめたい) and 同じ (おなじ) send more kana than the basic rule would suggest.
• Nouns that do take okurigana: 後ろ (うしろ, behind), 互い (たがい, each other), 幸せ (しあわせ, happiness), 全て (すべて, all), and counting words with つ such as 一つ and 二つ.
• Nouns from verbs that drop it: 話 (はなし, story or talk) has no okurigana even though the verb is 話す (はなす). 光 (ひかり, light) and 氷 (こおり, ice) work the same way.
• Fixed compounds: common words such as 切符 (きっぷ, ticket), 場合 (ばあい, case), 物語 (ものがたり, story), 受付 (うけつけ, reception) and 番組 (ばんぐみ, TV program) are written without okurigana by custom.

Compounds made from two verbs normally keep the okurigana of both parts, as in 申し込む (もうしこむ, to apply) and 乗り換え (のりかえ, transfer). The rules also allow shorter spellings where misreading is unlikely, such as 申込み or 乗換え, so you will see both on signs and forms. Since 話 and 話す share one kanji, the presence or absence of す tells you whether you are reading a noun or a verb.

Variant spellings you will see

Because the rules include allowed alternatives, real text is not perfectly uniform. The standard spelling of 行う (おこなう, to carry out) is 行う, but 行なう is explicitly permitted. Some writers prefer it for clarity, because 行った could be read いった (went) or おこなった (carried out). In the same way, 表す may be written 表わす, 終わる may appear as 終る, and 生まれる as 生れる. Older books, personal writing and names often use these shorter or longer forms.

For your own writing, use the spelling your dictionary or textbook shows as standard. When reading, treat the variants as the same word. A Japanese input method will usually offer the standard spelling first when you type the reading, which is another reason to type words as whole words rather than kanji by kanji.

How to learn okurigana

1. Learn words, not bare kanji readings. Study 食べる, 高い and 新しい as whole words. The okurigana come for free, and you avoid writing mistakes like 食る.
2. Notice the split in dictionaries. Dictionaries mark where the okurigana begin with a dot or a dash, as in た.べる or た-べる. The kanji pages on this site use the dash form for kunyomi.
3. Practise conjugation with the kanji in place. Writing 書かない and 書いた next to 書く trains your eye to see the fixed kanji and the moving ending.
4. Group verb families. Learn 上がる with 上げる, and 下がる with 下げる. The pairs share a kanji and differ only in their okurigana.
5. Review the words you misspell. Put them into a spaced repetition deck. Apps such as Moji or Anki then bring them back just before you would forget.

Okurigana look like a small detail, but they are where kanji and grammar meet. Once you see them as the moving part of each word, kanji with several readings become much easier to read. The JLPT N5 kanji contain plenty of verbs and adjectives to practise on.