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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":
这里只有一个人。
Zhè lǐ zhǐ yǒu yī gè rén
There is only one person here.
从
从 (cóng) is made of two "person" radicals and means "from":
你从哪里来？
Nǐ cóng nǎ lǐ lái?
Where are you from?
众
众 (zhòng) is made of three "person" radicals and means "audience":
他的表演深受观众们的喜爱。
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":
他很擅长木雕。
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":
林子里有很多鸟。
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:
森林里有好多动物。
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 人从众 is actually a short phrase that refers to people who lack their own opinion?
Recently, there's been a popular phrase 又双叒叕 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
