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

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.

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.

Examples

--:--

裏面(りめん)がガラスでできているスマホは最近(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)にミルクからできている製品(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! (come from)

飛行機(ひこうき)は軽(かる)い素材(そざい)でできている。

Airplanes are made from light materials.

プラスチックやアスファルトは石油(せきゆ)からできます。

Things like plastic and asphalt are made from oil. (come from)

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でできる・からできる – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (12 in total)

Pushindawood
made of, made from, produced from, come from
Structure
- Noun + で + できる
- Noun + から + できる
View on Bunpro

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

[Used to express materials/ingredients something is made of]

[で is used when the material is obvious at first glance and から when it is not (the younger generation tends to use で much more often regardless)]
CrisH
In the phrase
アレルギーがあるから、ナッツとかナッツ からできる ものとか食(た)べてはだめよ。
How come the usage where the material is unclear is used when the material is given in the sentence? Would でできる mean the unspecified things would be made by nuts?
Pushindawood
@CrisH Hey! “からできる” is used here because it may not be immediately apparent that the products being referred to contain nuts. These products could be things like chocolates, cookies, pastries, or energy bars. Cheers!
flowsnake
What difference to the meaning does it make to use できる vs できている? They don’t seem to be interchangeable, and the difference doesn’t seem like “made from” vs “is currently being made from” like ている can mean for other verbs.

Edit: Sorry, I somehow managed to miss the part about specific vs general.
bunbunyup
Why is the potential form 買かえて used in:
やっと木でできている茶碗が買えて、よかった。

I am glad that I finally bought a teacup made of wood.
Pushindawood
@bunbunyup Thank you for drawing this to our attention! The translation should read: “I am glad that I was finally able to buy a teacup made of wood.” Cheers!
Johnathan-Weir
How does this differ from using で/から作られる?
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

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?

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.

Pep95:

How...
soundjona
Hello, for this example
sweeterthansin
I have the same question
dalemartel
Similar question as those above me, but maybe I’m just misunderstanding the nuance.
nomius
I think it goes like this:
[A is made of B]

All B are made of A → （で・から）できる
Some B are made of A → （で・から）できている
This particular B is made of A ->（で・から）できている

That being said, I’m still vexed by the plane sentence from above. The only way it would make sense is if there are some planes that are built out of non-light materials, which I don’t think is the case, even for military purposes. Nevertheless, I think that what matters in this example is what the collective unconscious knows about planes, not the actual facts. If movies/TV lead people to believe some planes are made of steel or lead, then I guess the logic checks out.