Okurigana - Inflection Examples

Inflection Examples

Adjectives in Japanese use okurigana to indicate aspect and affirmation-negation, with all adjectives using the same pattern of suffixes for each case. A simple example uses the character 高 (high) to express the four basic cases of a Japanese adjective. The root meaning of the word is expressed via the kanji (高, read taka and meaning "high" in each of these cases), but crucial information (aspect and negation) can only be understood by reading the okurigana following the kanji stem.

高い (takai)

High (positive, imperfective), meaning " expensive" or " high"

高くない (takakunai)

High (negative, imperfective), meaning " not expensive/high"

高かった (takakatta)

High (positive, perfective), meaning " expensive/high"

高くなかった (takakunakatta)

High (negative, perfective), meaning " expensive/high"

Japanese verbs follow a similar pattern; the root meaning is generally expressed by using one or more kanji at the start of the word, with aspect, negation, grammatical politeness, and other language features expressed by following okurigana.

食べる (taberu)

Eat (positive, imperfective, direct politeness), meaning " eat"

食べない (tabenai)

Eat (negative, imperfective, direct), meaning " do not eat"

食べた (tabeta)

Eat (positive, perfective, direct), meaning " ate/have eaten"

食べなかった (tabenakatta)

Eat (negative, perfective, direct), meaning " did not eat/have not eaten"

Compare the direct polite verb forms to their distant forms, which follow a similar pattern, but whose meaning indicates more distance between the speaker and the listener:

食べます (tabemasu)

Eat (positive, imperfective, distant politeness), meaning " eats"

食べません (tabemasen)

Eat (negative, imperfective, distant), meaning " does not eat"

食べました (tabemashita)

Eat (positive, perfective, distant), meaning " ate/has eaten"

食べませんでした (tabemasen deshita)

Eat (negative, perfective, distant), meaning " did not eat/has not eaten"