でできる・からできる - Grammar Discussion

Grammar Points
#1

made of, made from, produced from, come from

Structure

  • Noun + で + できる
  • Noun + から + できる

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:warning: 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)]

#2

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?

#3

@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!

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#4

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.

#5

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.

#6

@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!

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#7

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

#8

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?

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#9

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.

It’s mostly about the speaker’s certainty, not the listener’s. So it’s not to that you’re speaking to an aircraft engineer, but as one.

Hope this helps!