他 pairs the person radical (亻, a slimmer 人 you already know) with 也, a curling shape borrowed only for its ancient sound — nobody today is fully certain what 也 first drew. A meaning-piece plus a sound-piece: that pairing, not pure pictures, built most Chinese characters ever made.
A piece of culture
A pronoun without a gender For most of Chinese history, 他 was everybody's third person: in classic novels like Dream of the Red Chamber, men and women alike were simply 他. A dedicated word for "she", 她, was coined only in 1920 by the writer and linguist Liu Bannong, who swapped in the woman radical 女 — sparking public uproar at the time before it quietly became standard. Chinese now also has 它 for things and, mostly in Taiwan today, 牠 for animals — all cousins sharing the same 也.
Use it in a real word
他人
tārén · taa1 jan4
other people; others — one step past 他; you already know 人