Recently while learning the last few dozens jouyou kanji, I've began to pay attention to the main radical of each kanji (not sure if I'm calling it correctly) so that I can memorize similar-looking kanji better. I noticed that kanji such as 板, 版 and 飯 have the same on-reading, that the only difference between them is the radical shown in dictionaries, and they all return to a simpler kanji with the same on-reading when I remove the main radical.
Now my question is : Are these radicals just for organizing words in dictionaries, or do they have more functions?
This has been on my mind for a while, so I'm really looking forward to hear from advanced learners and native speakers. Thanks in advance
