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Whereas Kana can be likened to alphabets of a different kind, the same cannot be said for Kanji. Kana represent sound, but Kanji represent meaning. In doing so, Kanji themselves are made up of smaller components. These components can then be categorized, and there are ways in which these components interact to build the thousands of Kanji that exist. 

These building blocks are called radicals, or ぶしゅ in Japanese. Traditionally, there are 214 distinct radicals. When Japanese are taught Kanji in school, they are also taught the names and meanings of these radicals. The names, if you will, are at least similar to how English speakers refer to different letters in the alphabet. 

These are just six examples of radicals that find themselves in many Kanji. Every radical has one or more (interrelated) meanings, and with native insight, the general meaning of the radical(s) of a Kanji can aid the reader in accurately guessing what the Kanji means even if it's the first time for the person to see it.

■Radicals as Standalone Kanji

Many radicals happen to also be used as standalone Kanji. After all, they each possess a core meaning. Not all radicals can be used in this way, but for the ones that do, they tend to be very important, commonplace Kanji. 

Now let's look at ten Kanji that use the radical 亻 to showcase how it attributes the meaning of "person."

Some radicals are found on the right-hand side of a Kanji, and as a consequence, they are generally written last. Let's consider the Kanji/radical meaning "bird" (鳥) to demonstrate its stroke order and how the stroke order of a right-side radical looks like in relation to an entire Kanji. To do so, let's consider the character 鳴 meaning "chirp/cry."  

Now let's look at ten Kanji that utilize the radical  艹  to showcase how it contributes the meaning of "plant."

Bottom-side radicals follows the rule that strokes of Kanji are generally written from top to bottom, meaning that they are written last. Let’s look at the radical 心 meaning “heart,” which is a variant of 忄from earlier. When you see it in the lower-half of a character, you know that the Kanji has something to do with emotions. To demonstrate how these radicals are written, consider the character meaning 思 “think.”

Hanging radicals follow the general guidelines of writing strokes from top-down and left-right, 'hanging over' the rest of the character in an r-shape. Let’s look at the radical 疒 meaning “sickness.” To demonstrate how these radicals are written, consider the character 病 meaning "disease."

Now let's look at ten Kanji that utilize the radical  疒  to showcase how it contributes the meaning of "disease."

Bottom-wrapping radicals are written last from top to bottom. They are written last because anything written on it is technically 'above' it. Let’s look at the radical 辶 meaning “movement.” When you see it wrapped around the left-hand side of a character in an l-shape, you know that the Kanji has something to do with movement or distance. To demonstrate how these radicals are written, consider the character 近 meaning “close.”

Now let's look at ten Kanji that utilize the radical  囗 to showcase how it contributes the meaning of "boundary."