For example, a picture character, ? (xi?) rest. the ? (rén) is the radical at the side of the ? (mù). The actual written radical of ? is ?.

Now you might wonder why it is a picture character. It is a picture character because the radicals mean man and tree. People often rest or take little naps next to a tree, so writing a man next to a tree creates the word rest, which is ?.

Other words are just sound alikes.

Another easy example is flower, ? (hu?). ? is the radical of the ancient ?(cao), the now modern times ?(cao). It means grass. the word underneath the ? is ? (huà). Now make the connection that ? and ?’s pinyins are the same apart from the accent. It has got nothing to do with ?’s orignal meaning, to make into; to change into; -ization; to … -ize; to transform, metamorphose… blah.

there are more than 5000 characters in chinese, and most of them are created that way even if you don’t notice it. There are, of course words that doesn’t follow this rule, so does english, but its the simplest way.