One tree (木), two trees (林), three trees (森)… Have you ever noticed that some characters are made of the same radicals?

人

人 (rén) stands for "person":

這里只有一個人。
Zhè lǐ zhǐ yǒu yī gè rén
There is only one person here.

從

從 (cóng) is made of two "person" radicals and means "from":

你從哪里來？
Nǐ cóng nǎ lǐ lái?
Where are you from?

眾

眾 (zhòng) is made of three "person" radicals and means "audience":

他的表演深受觀眾們的喜愛。
Tā de biǎo yǎn shēn shòu guān zhòng men de xǐ ài
His show is very popular with the audience.

木

木 (mù) means "wood":

他很擅長木雕。
Tā hěn shàn cháng mù diāo
He is really good at wood carving.

林

林 (lín) is made of two "wood" radicals and means "forest":

林子里有很多鳥。
Lín zi lǐ yǒu hěn duō niǎo
There are many birds in the forest.

森

森 (sén) is made of three "wood" radicals and means "forest" too:

森林里有好多動物。
Sēn lín lǐ yǒu hǎo duō dòng wù
There are many animals in the forest.

So by just looking at the characters, you can guess that one 木 does not make a forest, but many 木-s do!

And if you put together 森 and 林, you will get 森林 (sēn lín), which is the general word for "forest".

Fun Facts

Did you know that 人從眾 is actually a short phrase that refers to people who lack their own opinion?

Recently, there's been a popular phrase 又雙叒叕 going around the Chinese internet which means "again and again and again".

The characters 叒 and 叕 are very rarely used (very few people actually know how to pronounce them) - so you can simply pronounce this phrase as "yòu yòu yòu yòu"!

Source: That's Mandarin
Editor: wanwan