Most Chinese dictionaries include about 20,000 characters, though linguists estimate literate speakers know between 5,000 and 8,000. The majority of the written Chinese language is comprised of character compounds, in which several characters are combined to make one word. When two or more radicals are combined, they work together to create a single character the radical on the left indicates the character’s category or meaning, while the radical on the right might indicate its pronunciation. 人=rén=person 从=cóng=from/follow 众=zhòng=crowd.

The evolution of the characters 人, 从, and 众.