A question about Chinese characters..?

Both characters belong under the radical 草 (grass). The radical indicates the character has something to do with harvest, plantation, flower, etc. For example these characters: 芽 (bud), 花 (flower), 芬 (fragrance) and 苦 (bitter) are all characters that has something to do with plants.

Similarly, these characters 汗池汕沐 belong to the radical 水 (water). All these characters are water-related. And characters like 灰災炸 have the radical 火 (fire) and are fire-related.

One thing about the Chinese written language is that you need to learn which radical the character belongs to. For example, 沐 is made up of 水 and 木 (wood), which is another common radical but the character is under the water radical in the Chinese dictionary.

Also, by knowing the meaning of the word, you can always guess the proper radical to use. For example, he, she and it pronounced the same in Chinese but written differently (with different radicals). But by knowing the meaning of the word (or the context of the sentence) you can guess the proper one to use. 他 with the "人" (man) radical means he or person in general. 她 with the "女" (female) radical means she, 牠 with the "牛" (animal) radical means it (animals) and 它 means it (inanimated objects).

Some common radicals: 刀 (cut, knife, weapon), 口 (mouth, oral), 土 (earth, soil), 女 (female), 山 (mountain, terrain), 心 (heart), 人 (human, man), 月 (meat, organ), 日 (sun, light), 火 (fire), 水 (water), 羽 (feather), 言 (oral, speech), 金 (metal, element), 食 (food), 鳥 (birds).

The Top Characters of 若 and 菡 are Called "草花头" *"Chou Fa Tao" in Cantonese OR "Cao Hua Tou" in Mandarin * (English: Grass Flower Head) Based On Simplified Meaning on only 草 = Grass Because The Word Grass In Chinese Also Has the Top "艹" in it! And "艹" Also Has Many Other Words With It! Like The Basic Meaning: 草-GRASS 花-FLOWER & 蓝-BLUE 苦-BITTER/SADNESS...AND MORE!

That particular radical is the "grass" radical and typically refers to something related to a plant or herbs. However, just as English has exceptions to spelling "rules," so does Chinese. The 若 character has nothing to do with plants (comparison . . . like, as if), but perhaps some time in history, it did. But then again, maybe it didn't! However, the 菡 character means lotus blossom and obviously follows the rule."

I know that as a westerner, I often want all Chinese characters to be "logical" but not all of them are. Some of them just "are" without any easily noticed rhyme or reason to the western mind.

This is a helpful site on radicals.

http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/radicals.html

Good luck!

若 = ruo4 = seems, as if...
艹 (grass) + 右 (right)...

菡 = han4 = lotus flower...
艹 (grass) + 函 (envelope, wrap)...