Furigana & Okurigana
As you progress with your Japanese studies, you will see two very important kinds of Hiragana. They are called furigana and okurigana. In this post letโs take a look at each of them and how they both help Japanese learners and natives read Kanji!
But first, let me introduce a chart for the vocabulary that youโll see in this post. Each word is written in Kanji and then in Hiragana, with its part of speech and meaning.
1) Furigana
Furigana, also known as ใใฟใใช or ruby, are the Hiragana characters either on top or to the side of Kanji characters.
As you can see, if the writing is horizontal, the furigana will be on top and if the writing is vertical, it will be on the right side. Either way, furigana tell you how to pronounce the Kanji characters.
There may be anywhere from 1 to 5 Hiragana characters represented by a single Kanji character!
We Japanese learners need furigana when we start studying Kanji and reading Japanese text. But Japanese children also need furigana when they are learning Kanji and even Katakana. Here you can see furigana used to learn Katakana characters.
Whether or not you see furigana depends on a few different factors:
the intended readers
the rarity of the Kanji
Generally, you wonโt see many examples of furigana. However, if you pick up a book/novel intended for elementary-aged children, you might see lots of furigana. This is because (like us!) they either havenโt learned the Kanjiโs readings or the writer intended the Kanji to be read in a certain way.
Some websites, books, IG posts, Youtube videos, etc that are intended for non-Japanese readers will also have a fair amount of furigana. Granted, it is helpful at first, but itโs a good idea to wane yourself off of furigana as you get better (or if you WANT to get better). The more you see a Kanji character, the more likely you are to remember its reading.
Gikun
Sometimes furigana doesnโt actually tell you the reading of the Kanji. Instead itโs used to add details or add shades of nuance, as in the examples below:
In these cases we call the furigana gikun, which loosely translates to โa false readingโ.
On the left, the Kanji reads ใใผใ, which means โdesire or wishโ but the furigana reads ใฒใใ, which means โlightโ. This conveys to the reader that light is a metaphor for hope in whatever setting you are seeing that Kanji.ย
On the right, the Kanji reads ใกใใ ใ, which means โEarthโ but the furigana reads ใตใใใจ which means โhome townโ or โwhere someone is fromโ. This tells the reader that someone is an Earthling โ as compared to a Martian or an alien from another planet.
This is a more-advanced way that furigana is used, so you wonโt see it unless you are reading manga or novels aimed for native speakers.
First the Word, Then the Kanji (Ateji & Jukujikun)
On the day that I arrived in Japan, they asked me for my name in Katakana at the airport. I hadnโt really thought about it so they wrote my name how it sounds to the Japanese ear.
A few days later, I was thinking about this, and it occurred to me that in the same way that they just โassigned meโ katakana, I could also give myself Kanji for my name! My name is Albert but I took my nickname Al and โHiraganizedโ it, getting ใใ. At this point I needed 1 or 2 Kanji that sounded out ใใ. I eventually decided on ไบ็. Iโll come back to this a bit later.
ไบ็ is what is calledย ateji. I started with a word and โworked backwardsโ to end up with Kanji, based on their readings. Another example of ateji is the Japanese word for The United States. Written with Hiragana itโs ใใใใ, but written with Kanji it becomes:
ไบ read as ใ ็ฑณ read as ใ ๅฉ read as ใ ๅ read as ใ
Keep in mind that these Kanji have nothing to do with the meaning of โAmericaโ or โThe U.S.โ (whatever that is lol). They were only chosen based on the way you read each Kanji. This is the idea of ateji.
A similar concept is Jukujikun. The word ใใใฃใฆ means โthe day after tomorrowโ. When it came time to assign Kanji to this word, the following 3 were chosen:
ๆ meaning โtomorrowโ ๅพ meaning โafterโ ๆฅ meaning โdayโ
You can reasonably see how this combination of Kanji can come to mean โthe day after tomorrowโ. The thing is, the actual way you read those Kanji areย nowhere closeย to ใใใฃใฆ๏ผThey were chosen because of their meanings and not their readings. Itโs almost the reverse of ateji. 2 more examples are:
ไปๆฅ is read as ใใใ but ไป is not ใใ and ๆฅ is not ใ
ไธๆ is read as ใธใ but ไธ is not ใธ and ๆ is not ใ
When it comes to jukujikun, because the furigana canโt be separated between the characters, it will appear either in the middle of the characters or stretched across them.
As for my Kanji, because the characters sound out ใใ, ไบ็ is ateji. However, Iย alsoย chose 2 Kanji with meanings that I liked. ไบ means โAsiaโ and ็ means โgemโ so Iย choseย my name to mean โgem of Asiaโ.
2) Okurigana
Now, letโs talk about okurigana. It is similar to furigana, except that it only appears next to Kanji. Okurigana is thought of as โhanging off ofโ Kanji characters.
The okurigana tells you how you should read the ้ฃ Kanji. In this particular example, both words mean โto eatโ so mixing them up is not the end of the world (depending on who you are talking with!). Other times, however, the meanings will be drastically different so okurigana is a vital part of Japanese.
Adjectives and Verbs
Most of the time, youโll find okurigana with adjective and verb forms. This is because they have a core part (called the stem) that will not change, and an ending that changes to add different shades of nuance to the core meaning. Think of the difference between โkickโ, โkicksโ, and โkickedโ in English.
Notice that sometimes the adjective or verb stem doesnโt overlap with the okurigana (Type 1). Other times, part of the stem is included in the okurigana (Type 2). The main thing to remember is, the okurigana is the Hiraganaย afterย the Kanji.
Another time you will see okurigana is with compound verbs. This is where two verbs are combined into one. In these cases, there will be okuriganaย bothย betweenย andย after Kanji characters. Examples are:
ๆใๅบใ, which means โto rememberโ ้ฃในๆฎใ, which means โto leave food half-eatenโ
Nouns
Most of the time, nouns are made up of only Kanji. However, there are some occasions where they will have okurigana. Most times, they will end in a character from the ใ VSG.
This is because they actually come from verbs!ย Here are some examples:
ๅใ (from ๅใ) ๅฅฝใ (from ๅฅฝใ) ใผใผใผใผใผใผใผใผใผใผ ไนใๅ ด (from ไนใ) ็ซใก้ฃฒใฟ (from both ็ซใค and ้ฃฒใ)
Other times, they arenโt derived from verbs, they are just simply nouns:
ๅขใ, which means โforce, powerโ ๅพใ, which means โbehind, rearโ ๅ จใฆ, which means โall, everythingโ ๆ ใ, which means โpity, sympathyโ ๆใ, which means โdiagonal, slantedโ
Same Kanji, Different Okurigana
The function of okurigana is to point you in the right direction of how to pronounce a given Kanji. There would be no reason for this if each Kanji had only 1 possible reading. As it turns out, a single Kanji can have many different ways to say it. Here are some examples:
As you can see, depending on the okurigana, ๆฑ can be read as ใใใช or as ใใ. On the other hand, the Kanji ๅบ is read as ใฒใ in all 5 of those words! For this reason, I would recommend learning Kanji like ๅบ early in your studies. ย It will be much easier for you to remember a Kanji with only 1 or 2 readings than a Kanji with many different readings.
Same Kanji, Same Okurigana
Itโs rare, but there are times when the okurigana unfortunately wonโt tell you decisively how to pronounce the Kanji. Here is an example:
As you can see (with the help of the furigana!) BOTH the Kanji and the okurigana are the same, making them different words but homographs. If it werenโt for the furigana, you might not know which reading of the kanji to use. In this situation, they both mean โto openโ but the way and the kind of opening is different. Japanese often separates very similar meanings by using different Kanji. In English, we just take it for granted that you can open your eyes and you can also open a door. In Japanese, they are two different kinds of actions, and so different Kanji are used. (It wonโt matter when you speak, but when you write or type, it would be good to be aware of the difference.) In these kinds of cases, you will have to rely on either context or on furigana to know which reading is correct.
Conclusion
As you can see, both furigana and okurigana will help you when it comes to reading Kanji. Sometimes you will have both, other times there will only be okurigana. Later on in the Kanji section, we will take a look at other ways to help you guess a Kanjiโs reading. Until then, good luck with your Japanese journey!
And with that, you are finished with the Hiragana section. Congrats!
Rice & Peace,
โ ไบ็ (ใขใซ)
๐๐พ
