"Be made out of" vs. "be made of/from"

[Rvidaltamayo]

Hi,

I am not a native English speaker, albeit I lived in the US for 5 years when I was in my mid 30's.

While living in the States, I learned about the idiom "be made out of" as in the song Dreidel: "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made you out of clay" and the questions like: "What is cheese made out of?".

Although I read the FAQ article where the differences between "made of" and "made from" are discussed, I could not find any information regarding the construct "be made out of".

Yesterday, while working with my 6-year old son on memorizing a poem, I found the next sentence:

I have a beautiful flower that lives in a pot I made of clay.

and my immediate reaction was to add "out" to it:

I have a beautiful flower that lives in a pot I made OUT of clay.

but I would like to give my son's teacher a proper explanation for me changing the sentence and not the general "because that is the way it is done in the US".

If any of of you could help with this issue I would be forever grateful.

Roman

[Raymott]

Hi,

I am not a native English speaker, albeit I lived in the US for 5 years when I was in my mid 30's.

While living in the States, I learned about the idiom "be made out of" as in the song Dreidel: "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made you out of clay" and the questions like: "What is cheese made out of?".

Although I read the FAQ article where the differences between "made of" and "made from" are discussed, I could not find any information regarding the construct "be made out of".

Yesterday, while working with my 6-year old son on memorizing a poem, I found the next sentence:

I have a beautiful flower that lives in a pot I made of clay.

and my immediate reaction was to add "out" to it:

I have a beautiful flower that lives in a pot I made OUT of clay.

but I would like to give my son's teacher a proper explanation for me changing the sentence and not the general "because that is the way it is done in the US".

If any of of you could help with this issue I would be forever grateful.

Roman

They all mean roughly the same thing. The poem is correct.
I can't think of a defensible explanation for your changing the poem, apart from what you've written above - that you thought it was wrong.

[konungursvia]

They do mean the same thing... but made from is the least clear, and seems to allow for the possibility of other ingredients.

If something is made of cheese, or made out of cheese, it would be 100% cheese, or near as dammit.

If something (like processed cheese singles) is "made from cheese" as we hear in TV commercials, we can assume cheese was involved but may no be the only ingredient.