Made of tells you what material something consists of: a ring made of gold, a house made of stone. It's used when you can still see and recognise the material in the finished object.
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be made of + material; What is it made of?; be made from + ingredient
- The old bridge in our town is made of stone and is over 300 years old.
- These chairs look heavy, but they're actually made of plastic.
- My favourite winter coat is made of wool, so it keeps me warm on long walks.
What changed
First versionFrom what is this bag made?
RevisionWhat is this bag made of?
Starting the question with a preposition, From what is this bag made?, sounds stiff, and from is the wrong preposition here anyway. For a material you can still see in the finished thing, the phrase is made of, and in a question the preposition goes to the end: What is this bag made of? That's how people actually say it.
If the material has changed beyond recognition, use made from: Cheese is made from milk, paper is made from wood. You can no longer see the milk in the cheese. There's also made in, for where something was made (made in Italy), and made by, for who made it (made by my grandmother).
Your turn
This wine is made ___ grapes from a small farm in the south of France.
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from — You can't recognise the grapes in wine any more: they've become a drink, so the answer is from. Of would fit if the material were still visible, like stone in a bridge or gold in a ring.
Describe something you use every day. Name it and say what it's made of.
I use my water bottle every day, and it's made of steel, so it never breaks.
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