okay furigana is not what i was thinking of. OKURIGANA is correct!! :D;; (thanks wikipedia...)

i think it's called "furigana" or ...well, some other --gana. It's when a word has a kanji, but it has hirigana that comes after it to complete a word. especially with adjectives: these have a kanji and then they tack on "shii" after it or "ui" etc. some nouns do it too... and verbs use it always. it depends on which one and you'll just have to learn which ones and how to include the kanji with them. taberu means to eat, and the "ta" part is the kanji, but the "beru" is in hirigana. although if someone were to see just the "ta" part, he or she would know that it means "food"... it's just what separates chinese written language from japanese. let me know if you need some help! <3