でできる and example sentence/translation

Japanese
#1

Hey everyone, I’m learning でできる at the moment and I came across this example sentence:

飛行機は軽素材で出来ている。

Which has been translated as “Airplanes are made from light materials.”
I’m a little confused about this, since I was specifically asked to use で instead of から and 出来ている instead of 出来る. As I understood, から was used for “made from” i.e. when material is not obvious, and 出来ている was for “this specific object” as opposed to 出来る “this object type”. I wouldn’t consider the lightness of the composite materials of an airplane an obvious factor, indeed I would probably consider this one of the least obvious elements of airplane materials, so why is で used instead of から? Similarly, if 出来ている is for a specific airplane in this case, why is it translated as “airplanes”? I initially wrote it off as Bunpro trying to get me to use all of the variants of the grammar point since they are de facto interchangeable, but if that were the case, why would it specifically ask for the least correct versions?

Your time in answering is greatly appreciated :D

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#2

I read this sentence as talking about airplanes in the general sense from は being used as the case marking particle, rather than the more specific が, and the で出来ている has a little bit more of of a nuance of airplanes being made “with” something (using something) than being made “from” something. The way I see it, Bunpro’s explanation of the nuance being different is just addressing how each form “tends” to be used, not stating that it is always used that way. The grammar point also does state this quite clearly:

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.

I think that in this case, it is an example of how the grammar point is most commonly used, rather than sticking strictly to certain “rules”. If it helps think of it this way - in English, you can say either “Airplanes are made from light materials.” or “Airlplanes are made with light materials.” and neither of those sentences would be incorrect. This is just a reflection of that sort of thing in Japanese. :slight_smile: I don’t think there is a “most correct” or “least correct” way to use these terms in the majority of cases.