Okurigana (送り仮名 – literally: “accompanying characters”) are characters that appear after a kanji character in a Japanese word. They are used to indicate the inflection or pronunciation of the kanji, and are typically written in hiragana. For example, in the word “読める” (yomu, meaning “can read”), the kanji is “読” and the okurigana are “め” and “る”. The okurigana are not part of the kanji itself, but rather a separate part of the word that helps to indicate its pronunciation and grammatical function.
Okurigana are often used in Japanese to help disambiguate the meanings of words that are written with the same kanji but have different pronunciations or meanings.
Another example:
Okurigana are often used to indicate the inflection or conjugation of verbs and adjectives in Japanese. For example, in the word “走る” (hashiru, meaning “to run”), the kanji is “走” and the okurigana here is “る,” which indicates that the verb is in the infinitive form. Similarly, in the word “美しい” (utsukushii, meaning “beautiful”), the kanji is “美” and the okurigana are “しい,” which indicates that the adjective is in the i-adjective form.
