Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 9: 2/16

でできる

Made of, Made from, Produced from, Come from

できている → more specific, できる → more general

Structure

Noun + で(1) + できる

(1) から

Details

  • Register

    Standard

  • 使用域

    一般

About でできる・からできる

でできる, or からできる are two structures that share very similar meanings. Basically, they both mean '(B) was made from/out of (A)'. These constructions highlight the 'ingredients', or 'materials' that something is/was made out of. Let's look at some examples.
  • 今日(きょう)は卵(たまご)と鶏肉(とりにく)でできる料理(りょうり)を紹介(しょうかい)します。
    Today we will introduce a food that is made from eggs and chicken.
  • 味噌(みそ)が苦手(にがて)なので、味噌(みそ)からできるものは食(た)べれません。
    Because I don't like miso, I can't eat things made from it.
から and で are both case marking particles in this grammar point, and while they express much the same thing when translated into English, there is a slight nuance difference. These differences are as follows:
から - Literally 'prepared from'. Tends to be used more frequently when the material is not obvious at first glance. May also put focus on the ingredients/materials before there was any alteration.
で - Literally 'prepared with'. Tends to be used more frequently when the materials are more obvious.
Despite this, recent generations use で in most situations, regardless of if the material is visible at first glance or not. As a result, でできる and からできる are almost indistinguishable in modern Japanese.
Caution
There is also a small nuance difference between できる, and できている, when used as part of this construction. できる is usually used when talking about something broadly 'everything in category (B) is made from (A)', while できている is used more frequently when examining a specific item 'this particular (B) is made from (A)'. Like the difference between で and から though, they are largely interchangeable.
  • 最近(さいきん)はコンクリートでできる家(いえ)が人気(にんき)だ。
    Recently, houses made of concrete are popular. (Houses in general)
  • この箸(はし)は竹(たけ)でできている。
    These chopsticks are made from bamboo. (This specific pair of chopsticks)

Examples

  • 裏面(りめん)がガラスでできるスマホは最近(さいきん)売行(うれゆ)きがいい。

    Recently there has been demand for smartphones with the back made of glass.

  • このワインはトップクラスのブドウからできています。どうぞ飲(の)んでください。

    This wine is made from top-class grapes. Please, try it.

  • スーパーは木曜日(もくようび)にミルクからできる製品(せいひん)のセールをするよ！

    The supermarket is having a sale of products made from milk on Thursday!

  • このスマホの裏面(りめん)はプラスチックでできているみたいだけど、実(じつ)は塗装(とそう)したメタルです。

    The back of this smartphone seems to be made of plastic, but in reality, it is made from painted metal.

  • 飛行機(ひこうき)は軽(かる)い物質(ぶっしつ)からできる必要(ひつよう)がある。

    It is necessary to build planes from light materials.

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でできる・からできる – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (8 in total)

  • Johnathan-Weir

    Johnathan-Weir

    How does this differ from using で/から作られる?

  • Pep95

    Pep95

    I was thinking, could one draw an equivalent between でできる and からできる and respectively the sentence enders of ね and よ?

    A よ sentence ender implies that the speaker thinks the listener is not aware of the concept that is being conveyed, while ね assumes that the listener is aware of the concept, and agrees on its correctness.

    Am I correct in interpreting でできる and からできる similarly?
    For example, in the sentence

    飛行機ひこうきは軽かるい物質ぶっしつ からできる 必要ひつようがある。
    (It is necessary to build planes from light materials.)

    からできる is used, which assumes that the listener would think it is not obvious that the plane is made of light materials. However, when I were to speak to an aircraft engineer, would I say でできる? Or does the nuance work differently?

  • Daru

    Daru

    The assertion level that ね and よ convey is completely dependent on the speaker. The certainty nuance comes from the ‘distance’ that から (farther) and で (closer) imply. Think how ここから and ここで feel different from each other.

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