44327
All verbs are written in kanji and kana combinations, but I am not able to
find the reason for them to be written in this way.
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2017-03-11T18:29:33.903
44314
2017-03-12T04:11:55.537
18435
question
verbs
Why are verbs written in kanji and kana combinations instead of all kanji?
This may not be the type of answer you expect, but the reasons is "because the
Japanese government decided to do so".

The current government says all conjunctions (もし, そして, でも, ...), adverbs (とても,
かなり, ...), particles (は, を, に, ...) and various auxiliaries (～だ, ～ている, ～た,
～ます, ～でしょう, ...) are to be written in hiragana. This rule was different in the
old days. There were times [when particles and auxiliaries were written in
kanji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man'y%C5%8Dgana), and there were times
[when particles and auxiliaries were written in
katakana](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meiji_Kenpo13.jpg), and
there were even times when the government seriously considered abandoning
kanji altogether (like [Koreans actually
did](https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/q/3831)). And as you know, verbs
and adjectives have lots of conjugations, which are made possible by
auxiliaries.

  * [Japanese script reform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_script_reform)
  * [Modern kana usage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_kana_usage)

Practically, many Japanese people believe that mixing kanji and kana enables
us to tell word boundaries easily without any spaces.

  * [How to separate words in a Japanese sentence?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/11687/5010)
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2017-03-12T03:57:57.893
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2017-03-12T04:11:55.537
2017-04-13T12:54:11.000
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answer