から is also used for indicating the material something is made of when that material is not obvious from looking at the product. I added a usage note regarding this to the similar function of で: http://www.renshuu.org/index.php?page=grammar/individual&id=112#mhead579
Also, it can be used when something is received from an organization or similar, rather than a person (に）. E.g. 銀行から借りたお金
I'd posted some on the で note for the sake of contrast, here they are: 紙は木からできる。 Paper is made from wood. このワインはカシスからできている。 This wine is made from black currant.
It's technically the very basic meaning of から as a starting point/source and from there on there has been some change in that material, e.g. in the case of wood, it's visible wood if a chair has been made of it (で), but with paper it's a processed ingredient that is no longer obvious.
Can be 作る too, and probably others as well, as long as the meaning is kept along the lines of making/producing (from some googling, even the 造る form popped up, mostly related to drinks - producing, that is, not mixing).
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15 years ago
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There's a typo in the second line of the advanced notes: "...when the reason/casuse might offend the other party."
から can also be used in place of へ (meaning "from") in sentences like 日本から来ました but from what I understand it particularly implies effort on the part of the subject, so in the example given it would mean something like "I came from Japan (and that's really far away/and it took a lot to get here)".
I just got a question about this "easy" grammar. When do I use から after the and add then the です instead of just adding から after the verb. Also, when do I use から after です? I don't mean at the sentence start.
Example:
余り好きじゃないですから。 or 余り好きじゃないからです。
吸わりませんから。 or 吸わりませんからです。(I guess that doesn't work because of ません (敬語))
食べなかったですから、お腹がすいていますよ。 or 食べなかったからです、お腹がすいています。 (I guess this doesn't make sense as well.)
Is there a usage difference if you use です instead of だ or it's working with the same sentence "grammar" structure?
Thx in advance and please excuse my worse English.
It is polite; but, in this expression at least, it can be interpreted as a little too polite and so, coldly formal. だから is ok in polite speech, and it's friendly, doesn't imply any disapproval.
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