90462
I'm self-learning Japanese from a book and I recently started learning some
kanji. For each one, the book gives both reading and some words you can make
using those kanji. Some of these have okurigana in their くん and おん readings,
along with the same reading without okurigana. This is an example:

![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ePvjNl.jpg)

As you can see, both the pronunciation with and without okurigana are listed,
but in the word section ことば, there is only one accompanied by okurigana.

Why are both readings listed, and why in the first place would you add
okurigana in the reading if it is a separate kana? I thought it implied that
kanji is usually accompanied by okurigana, but then:

![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nN5PZl.jpg)

Here in ことば, we have okurigana に that was not even listed in the reading.

Why is that? Is there some understood convention about writing okurigana in
the readings?

A similar case here:

![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8Kj0ml.jpg)

![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/s5jLxl.jpg)

![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/VKSJcl.jpg)

Like 二, both 三 and 四 have the reading with the つ okurigana, but 二 has also the
one without okurigana (ふた), why isn't there also よつ or みつ (no okurigana) like
in above? Is it implied?
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2021-09-23T20:59:04.463
90461
2021-09-24T10:11:47.477
2021-09-24T10:11:47.477
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question
kanji readings okurigana
Why are okurigana listed in くん pronunciation?
Okurigana is to help the reader know which _reading_ of the character is being
used. As such, okurigana only ever applies the the kun-reading of the
characters.

When you're seeing something like

> [先]{さき}に

に here is not _okurigana_. The に is not part of the reading of the character.
It is the particle に applied to the noun さき. Also, you can think of さきに as
something of a set phrase for a beginning student of Japanese--that's probably
the reason they provided it for you.

Indeed for each character you need to sometimes learn multiple _on_ -readings
and _kun_ -readings. This can seem daunting at first, but with practice
reading, you will catch on and begin to build an intuition.

The okurigana helps you distinguish between different possible _kun_ -readings
for the same character. The characters you chose to highlight, in terms of the
readings provided, don't shed much like on why you might need okurigana. So,
here are some examples for clarification.

* * *

To give a notable example, consider 開く 開ける

開 generally means to open. _On-yomi_ -wise (On-reading) it's very straight
forward: かい. But it has four other possible readings.

  * [開]{あ}く
  * [開]{あ}ける
  * [開]{ひら}ける
  * [開]{ひら}く

The English translation for all of these is essentially "open".

I give this example because it's one that confused me and gave me many
headaches when I was first learning Japanese. My thinking went this way, " _I
thought okurigana was supposed to help you figure out the readings, but here
for a given okurigana there are still two possible readings for the
unexpressed part of the reading. How do you figure this out!_ "

Well, the Japanese have super-powers. lol.

Not quite, but if you're a native speaker of English, there's a distinction
that is made with every Japanese verb that is essential to bang into your
head. Every verb is either transitive or intransitive. So, if you're reading a
Japanese sentence, you should eventually intuit whether the Japanese is
building toward a transitive or an intransitive sentence. Your clue for this
can just be the particle を. This particle always _(please read the label,
restrictions and exceptions may apply)_ indicates a sentence that takes an
object: hence a transitive sentence.

So here are the same verbs again.

  * [開]{あ}く to open (intransitive)
  * [開]{あ}ける to open (transitive)
  * [開]{ひら}ける to open (intransitive) but often used in figuratively with meanings ranging from _to cultivate_ to _to be open minded_. This one is pretty easy to spot because of its figurative uses even if you don't remember that it's intransitive.
  * [開]{ひら}く to open (transitive)

Please don't ask why there are so many verbs for _to open_. There are slight
nuances here that you **will** be able to learn to discern.

So, if you see the sentence.

> ふたを開く

> Uncover a lid. (ie. to open a jar with a lid or something like that).

the particle を there is the clue that the verb is being used transitively. So
the reading for 開く is ひらく.

Incidentally, please don't ever rely on the English translation to determine
transitivity of the Japanese. Often the English and Japanese will be at odds
(mostly what's expressed intransitively in Japanese is expressed transitively
in English).

* * *

WAIT!!!! I wasn't asking about transitive vs intransitve verbs. I was asking
about okurigana.

Yes, I know. I gave perhaps one of the nastier examples here. But still, the
okurigana reveals to a observant reader the underlying reading of the
character.

More generally, the situation is a lot more straight forward.

For example

  * [行]{い}く
  * [行]{おこな}う

Here the _okurigana_ facilitate knowing which reading to use with the
character 行
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2021-09-23T23:13:18.290
90462
2021-09-23T23:56:09.117
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answer
There are quite a few words in which 大 is read おお without being followed by
_okurigana_ , such as [大雨]{おおあめ}, [大雪]{おおゆき}, and [大男]{おおおとこ}. That’s probably
why おお is listed separately from おお(きい).

Similarly, 二 is read ふた in some words, such as [二言]{ふたこと}, [二重]{ふたえ}, and
[二葉]{ふたば}.

When みつ or よつ appears in a word, on the other hand, 三 and 四 are usually
followed by つ, as in [三]{み}つ[葉]{ば} and [四]{よ}つ[葉]{ば}. Although this つ may be
omitted especially in names, as in [三谷]{みつや} and [四谷]{よつや}, み(つ) and よ(つ) are
considered the more standard readings.

The に in 先に is not _okurigana_. It’s a particle.
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2021-09-24T01:14:45.147
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answer