I know the difference between "made of" and "made from", but could you help me choose which one I should use in the following sentence?
This house is made of (or) from mud bricks
Asked
Active
Viewed 5,946 times
0
-
So what's the answer? – user111273 Feb 21 '15 at 15:33
-
2In this case, ELL provides a better explanation. Please see the highest up voted answer: Why is wine made 'from' grapes, but tables are made 'of' wood? – Mari-Lou A Feb 21 '15 at 15:44
-
The distinction is subtle, and depends, in large part, on what you want to emphasize. (I'd just say "The house is adobe" and skip the whole issue.) – Hot Licks Feb 21 '15 at 18:45
-
And in any normal conversation nobody is going to bat an eye at either phrase and everyone will understand. – Jim Feb 21 '15 at 18:49
-
Both 'of' and 'from' suggest strongly 'and nothing else'; arguably, 'using' has less of this connotation. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 22 '15 at 07:32
2 Answers
1
It depends on whether the mud blocks are still mud blocks after the house has been built. While it was definitely true that the house was made OF mud blocks, whether the mud blocks can now still be considered mud blocks (i.e. they have merged into a mud wall and individual blocks are no longer singular objects) is a different story, and we might say the house IS built FROM mud blocks, because OF is no longer true.
Similarly consider an ice structure built from ice cubes. As they melt, are the ice cubes still to be considered as ice cubes?
JMP
- 3,614
-3
House is made from mud bricks. Made from-shows the material which is used to make sth. Made of- tells about the material the object is composed of. Eg. Paper is made from wood. Table is made of wood.
-
1You seem to be saying that you should use "from", but the best answer is "of". See Ngram. – Peter Shor Feb 21 '15 at 16:29
-
Hey! This is what is written in Oxford.I hv taken the statements from there...and with the examples provided, I don't think there should be any issue in the statements – CuriousCurie Feb 21 '15 at 21:22
-
I think of a house as being composed of bricks. The bricks aren't altered when they are built into a house; not the way wood is altered when it is made into paper. And from my Ngram, most English speakers agree. – Peter Shor Feb 21 '15 at 22:39