Okurigana Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Okurigana (送り仮名, literally "accompanying characters") are a special use of hiragana suffixes following kanji stems in Japanese written words. Generally used to inflect an adjective or verb, okurigana can indicate tense (past or present/future), affirmative/negative meaning, or grammatical politeness, among many other inflections.An additional use of okurigana are to disambiguate kanji that may have multiple readings. Since kanji, especially the most common ones, can be used for words with many (usually similar) meanings—but widely disparate pronunciations—key okurigana placed after the kanji help the reader to know which meaning and reading were intended.
Disambiguation examples include common verbs which use the characters "上" (up) and "下" (down):
; 上がる (agaru) : "to ascend/to make ready/to complete", in which 上 is read "a"
; 上る (noboru) : "to climb/to go up", in which 上 is read "nobo"
; 下さる (kudasaru) : "to give [to the speaker as an inferior]", in which 下 is read "kuda"
; 下りる (oriru) : "to get off/to descend", in which 下 is read "o"
; 下がる (sagaru) : "to dangle", in which 下 is read "sa"
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