Don't understand example in Chinese 1.7 Neutral Tones

I don't understand from the following explanation how the characters help one tell the tone for a word. Can someone help me understand this? Here is the quote from lesson 1.7: "More specifically, many characters tell you both 1) how they sound and 2) what "category of meaning" they belong to. ExampleHow it soundsWhat it means 马 mǎ女 female 马 mǎ

They are giving hints of what is yet to come when you start studying the characters. Most characters are compositions of simpler characters. Here is an example from another thread. 贝(bèi)=sea shell,money, currency 才(cái)=talent, ability, just, only 财 (cái) = wealth, money, riches, valuables The 贝(bèi) portion of 财(cái) gives hints at the meaning, or "category of meaning", while the second 才(cái) portion gives hints at the pronunciation. It does not necessarily give hints at the exact tone, just hints at the pronunciation. The example you showed from the lesson is not very helpful. The writing lessons, though, are worth studying in detail.

Thank you, Robert.