Talk:Okurigana

上る versus 登る

An anonymous contributor recently added:

Japanese usually uses 登る when they want to express to climb .

In my understanding, 登る means "to climb (using hands or feet)", but 上る means "to climb (a set of stairs)", or more generally, "go up". I believe the distinction between the two types of climbing is present in Japanese, but not in English.

Would anyone mind if I corrected this contribution?

--Che Fox 15:58, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Okurigana used for prefixes

This article seems to imply that okurigana are used only for suffixes. I believe that they are also used for the honorific prefixes お and ご. I cannot think of any other prefixes in Japanese, but those come to mind right away. Unless someone objects, I will alter the article to indicate this.

Regards,

John

Metrodorus (talk) 17:32, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm a Japanese native speaker. I'm afraid you are wrong. See this. Regards. Oda Mari (talk) 04:28, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! I stand corrected. 76.105.6.213 (talk)

To follow-up – the honorific prefixes are bikago (or teineigo, depending on context); I’ve added a section on other kana affixes to clarify this in future. Thanks both for question and answer!

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 08:07, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Something to add

What about characters that only have one On-yomi pronounciations? You can also conjugate those using okurigana. ex: 愛する-AI(suru);to love| 愛しませんでした-AI(shimasendeshita); Did not love. Also compounds can be conjugated by putting suru at the end ex:入力する-to type

• That's a matter of Japanese grammar, not okurigana specifically. — Gwalla | Talk 17:44, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

How so? It is kanji followed by hiragana thus making it Okurigana. However, "suru" is a verb by itself meaning "to do", if that is what you are talking about. Whenever a Kanji has no hiragana to conjugate it you simply add "suru" after the character you want to become a verb. I know that people get confused when they know a kanji can be a verb but don't know how to make it a verb. Maybe I'll see if it is in the japanese grammar article.

It's not a matter of okurigana but Japanese verb conjugations and adjective declensions. Simply adding "suru" after kanji doesn't make the kanji a verb. Oda Mari (talk) 04:46, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Does that mean adding "suru" makes the kanji a participle? I understand now though. One more thing, what about the "be" in "tabemono"; Is that okurigana? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.214.84.215 (talk) 23:48, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes, the "be" in "tabemono" 食べ物（たべもの） is okurigana, coming from the verb 食べる たべる ta-be-ru. Without the okurigana, you have 食物 しょく-もつ shoku-motsu, which is a synonymous word on Chinese roots (kango, on'yomi).

I also added a note about する – as earlier editors wrote, it’s generally analyzed as a separate word, not okurigana, though in some cases (notably single-character + する such as 愛する) conjugation is a bit irregular. The note (as a footnote) as originally written reads:

Verbs with Chinese roots are instead a word + する (suru, to do), and only the する, which is a separate word, inflects.

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 13:06, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

助動詞 are not okurigana

Japanese sources say that the purpose of okurigana is strictly to indicate the reading, not to inflect. Even the Japanese version of this article says "語のすべてが仮名表記された語（助詞・助動詞を含む）は送りがなとは呼ばない". That would exclude things like られる, ない, ます, and た from the category of okurigana. KateWishing (talk) 18:25, 2 July 2017 (UTC)