10 Ways to Use "From" - EnglishClass101

Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I’m going to talk about 10 ways to use the word “from.” Let’s get started! Okay.

The first use I want to talk about for this lesson is using “from” to express the origin of (something). So, when I say “origin” for this lesson, I mean the place where something came from or the material, so the thing that something is made out of. We can use “from” to express both of these.

Let’s look at some examples of this.

First - “He’s from Canada.”

In this sentence, “from” tells us the person’s origin. In this case, their home country or where they were born.

“He’s from Canada.”

So we use this use when we introduce ourselves.

Second - “This car is from a company in Italy.”

“This car is from a company in Italy” refers to the place, in this case, a company in Italy, the car originated. So, where did that thing come from originally, in the beginning. In this case, we’re talking about a company in Italy.

Third - “Her sweater is made from silk and wool.”

This use of “from” tells us the origin of the materials. So, we’re talking about, in this case, what something is made of. There’s a note here, the star refers to another preposition you might hear used in this case. So, in this sentence, I have, “Her sweater is made from silk and wool.” You may also hear “of” used in this position, “Her sweater is made of silk and wool.” We use “of” and “from” to talk about the material origin of something, but we do not use “of” in these cases, so please keep this in mind.

Okay, let’s move on to the second use of “from.”

Second is to use it to describe the start point in terms of a location. So, the “start point” that is a a place.

Let’s look at these examples:

“The train from London has arrived.”

“The train from London has arrived” means London was the start point of the train. So, when you want to describe the starting point of somewhere, the location where something started, you can use “from” before it.

Let’s look at the second example:

“Our vacation plan goes from Italy to France.”

So in this case, we have our start point (Italy) and we have the end point (France). We know this because we have the preposition “to” before the destination. You’ll see this pattern, this “from-to” pattern in many of the uses in today’s lesson, so it’s a good reminder to keep in your mind that we often use “from” and “to” together. So, in this case, we’re talking about the start point, Italy here, with “from.”

One more example of this use:

“The bus leaves from Central Station.”

So again, we’re talking about the start point of something. We use “from” to indicate that.

Let’s compare this now to use no.3 which is to refer to the start point in terms of time. So we use this when we’re talking about schedules a lot.

For example, first:

“The meeting is from 10 AM to 12 PM.”

So, “from” shows the start point in terms of time.

“The meeting starts at 10 AM” is another way to say this.

So, “The meeting is from 10 AM to 12 PM.” We mark the start point with “from.”

The same is in the second example sentence here.

“Our store is open from 9 AM to 7 PM.”

Again, we mark the start point in terms of time here.

We can also use this use of “from” with things that are not specific times, but rather just general periods of the day.

In this example, we have:

“We worked from morning to night on the project.”

So this shows that the activity start point was morning. So we work from morning, early in the day, to night. So again, we’re showing the time period that an action happened. The start of that time is shown with “from.”

Okay, let’s move on to use no.4.

We use this to describe the person who sent (something) or gave (something).

So, we’re talking, again, about the origin of something. It’s another way to think about it, but in terms of person who provided something.

Let’s look at these examples:

First - “I got this necklace from my mom.”

“I got this necklace from my mom.”

So, this means this necklace, the origin point of this necklace was my mom, so we use “from” to show the gift giver. I got this from my mom.

The second example sentence:

“We received a message from the client.”

Again, “from” comes before the origin, so the person in this case or the client in this case, where that thing started. So, where did it come from? From the client.

Lastly, “A package from my friend arrived today!”

“A package from my friend arrived today!”

So, we’re showing the sender (my friend) with “from.”

“A package from my friend arrived today!”

So we can use this when we’re talking about giving gifts, when we’re talking about sharing information and so on.

Okay, let’s go to the middle column for this lesson, no.5.

No.5 is using “from” for the distance between two points.

So, this means from A to B. We use this when we’re talking about directions.

So, let’s take a look at the example sentences here.

“It’s 10 miles from my house to the supermarket.”

So, like we practiced earlier here with the start point, the location start point, we use “from” to talk about the place we start and then we talk about the destination here. So we use this with some kind of measurement. In this case, it’s 10 miles from my house to the supermarket. So when you want to talk about distance, you can use this pattern. Again, you’ll notice, we’re using this “from-to” pattern, start point, destination point with “from” and “to.”

Let’s look at the next example:

“It’s a 3-minute walk from the office to the cafe.”

Again, we have some measurement here. In this case, a 3-minute walk. We’re not talking about miles or meters or kilometers. In this case, we’re using time to measure the distance. So again, we have “from” to mark the start point, from the office and the destination to the cafe. So we can use this to express distance in this way with time as well.

Last example then:

“It’s about a 1-hour drive from our house to the beach.”

So again, we’re using time to measure distance and in this case, we’re talking about driving a car somewhere. A 1-hour drive from start point (our house) to destination (the beach). So we can use “from” to mark the start point in terms of our location for miles, kilometers, meters, whatever, and for time too.

Okay, next one, no.6. We can use “from” to refer to someone’s perspective or someone’s point of view, the way another person sees a situation.

Let’s look at these examples.

“The view from where I’m standing is beautiful.”

So, this is important because this “from” tells us that specifically, from the speaker’s point of view. So maybe from a different location, the view is okay or it’s not so beautiful or maybe we can’t see anything, but the speaker wants to make sure the other person understands right here, from where I’m standing, the view is beautiful. We can use this “from” to do that.

“The view from where I’m standing is beautiful” or “The view from my position is beautiful.” So when you want to emphasize that you need to be in this place right here, you can use this kind of pattern.

Okay, next one, in like a business or a negotiation situation.

“From our point of view, this isn’t a smart deal.”

This means, if you think about it, with our perspective, in your mind, maybe with our needs and our situation in mind, this isn’t a smart deal. So, in this case, they are declining or they’re refusing some kind of negotiation or some kind of deal. “From our point of view,” so we use this “from.” You don’t use the preposition “by” here, for example. We always use “from” in this situation. “From our point of view” or “from my point of view,” refers to your own perspective.

Okay, last example sentence:

“Have you thought about your argument from the other person’s perspective?”

So in this case, maybe two people had an argument, had a fight and one person is discussing it with their friend. The friend might say, “Hmm, have you thought about it from the other person’s perspective?” Meaning, did you think about the situation from their point of view or in their mind? So, from the other person’s perspective, we’re using from to show that you should think about that thing with their eyes. So, this is another way that you can kind of mediate or you can kind of help someone through a difficult situation or a difficult discussion. So, you might hear phrases like this, from their point of view, from the other person’s perspective, and so on.

Okay, let’s move on to the next use of “from.”

Next is range. So, we can use “from” to describe a range. Earlier, we talked about using “from” to talk about distance in terms of like the physical distance and in terms of time. We can also use “from” to talk about a range of things too.

So, let’s look at some examples of this.

First - “This store sells everything from electronics to snacks.”

So here, we have a range of products in a store, from electronics to snacks. So this might sound kind of strange at first, but the idea here, by including these two things that don’t seem very related, we’re trying to show that the store has many different products, so electronics and snacks are maybe not so closely related, but we want to emphasize the store has many, many things. We can do this with the same “from-to” pattern. In this case, of course, it’s not a start point and a destination, but we’re kind of using these two things to show how many products there are. By choosing some kind of strange unconnected things, we’re showing the range of possible goods you can buy at the store.

Let’s look at another example of this.

“She can talk about topics from science to politics.”

Okay.

“She can talk about topics from science to politics.”

Just as we saw in the first example sentence, we have this “from-to” pattern used here. And again, these two topics, in this case, are not necessarily related and that’s okay. Rather, we’re using this “from-to” pattern to show, to emphasize, in this case, this person can talk about many different things. We want to show this person has a range of conversation topics, so we pick science on one side and politics on the other. Of course, you could change this. You could say, “She can talk about topics from pop culture to art” or whatever you think is interesting. The key here is we use range or we use “from” in this way to show the range of someone’s capabilities or of a store’s products and so on.

Let’s look at one more example:

“Opinions and values vary from person to person.”

Let’s break this one down because I wanted to include this for a reason. This includes or this has the expression “from person to person” in it. So, up until now, we’ve seen “from-to” and the two things are different, right? But this expression uses person in both positions, yeah? This expression basically means from person to person or each person, each different person has different ideas or different values. In this sentence, it’s opinions and values vary. So, “to vary” means to differ. It’s a way of saying “to differ.” So this sentence is saying, each person has their own opinions and their own values. We use “from person to person” to mean like from this person to this other person to this other person. You can kind of think of it in that way. This expression is very commonly used to talk about differences of opinions and differences in interests between many different people.

So, this uses “from” in this way to describe a range or to express a different range of things. We’ve seen it in terms of store goods, in terms of topics, and in terms of opinions and values of people.

Okay, let’s move on to no.8, the eighth use of “from.”

No.8 is the state before a change. So, when we’re talking about some kind of transformation or some change from one thing to another, we use “from” a lot of the time.

So, first example:

“She transferred from marketing to sales.”

Again, we see this very common “from-to” pattern. So, from marketing marks the place she started. So, the state before a change or maybe the place before a change in this case. She started in marketing or the marketing department in this case. She transferred, so change in this case, from marketing to sales. So, again, we kind of have the start point-destination feeling here, but we’re using it in this case to talk about a transformation or a change.

Let’s look at the next example.

“Convert this document from Excel to PDF.”

So again, we have this “from-to” pattern, from Excel, so we have this one software type, right? To PDF, this is the desired one. So this is kind of the destination or the desired outcome or the desired result. So in this case, our verb is convert. This is another way to say “change.” So, change this document from Excel format to PDF format. So again, we have this kind of start (Excel), destination (PDF) in this case.

Okay, one more example of this.

“He translated the text from French to English.”

So, in this sentence, again, we have “from,” our original (French) and our destination or our outcome (English). Our verb is translated. So, we can think of this as transforming the language in this case. So we use “from” and “to” to talk about this transformation, this process of transformation.

You might also notice that the verbs used in these, kind of refer to a change in some way, yeah? So, “transfer” or “convert” or “translate,” these verbs are relating to some kind of change happening. So, if you’re not sure for whatever reason about the “from” you’re looking at, maybe you can try taking a look at the verb in the sentence and that might give you a good hint.

Okay, let’s move on to no.9.

No.9 is the cause or the reason for something.

So, let’s look at some examples of this. We can use it to talk about the reason for a feeling or an emotion.

“She was tired from her workout.”

In this case, we have “from” before her workout. This use of “from” is showing us the reason for this condition. So, her workout is the reason she is tired or she was tired, in this case. So, we use this before a cause of something.

Let’s look at the next example of this.

“I could tell he was upset from his message.”

So, here we have “from his message.” So this use shows us that the message in this case is telling us some information that’s a cause or a reason for something. What is it doing? I could tell he was upset, okay? So here is our condition, he was upset, and then I could tell. Notice this use of tell is kind of an interesting one. This means understand. Very casually in everyday spoken English, we don’t say “understand” so much. We use “tell” to mean to be able to recognize something. So this means I was able to recognize or I was able to understand he was upset from his message.

So you can think of this use of from as like “based on.” So, based on this information, I knew this, okay.

Let’s look at one more example of this.

“Advertisers know about us from our data.”

So again, we have “from” before, in this case, our data. So this is the thing that causes the situation or that kind of gives a reason for something. In this case, advertisers know about us, so what websites we go to and the products that we look at and so on. Why do they know this? From our data or based on our data. So, if this one is a little bit tricky for you to understand, you can kind of think of this use of “from” as meaning based on. So we can use “from” to describe a cause or a reason for something.

And you’ll also notice in these cases, we’re following this with a noun phrase, so that’s another really good hint that this is maybe a cause or a reason use of from.

Okay, let’s move on to the last one for this lesson, no.10.

The last one is to show something removed or to show someone removed. We often use this when we’re talking about people removed from a situation. So, the key here is the person is removed. That means they did not choose to go out of the situation. Instead, they were taken away.

So, let’s look at these examples.

“He was fired from his job for skipping work.”

So, to skip work means to not go to work. You don’t tell anybody anything, you just don’t go to the office or don’t go to your job. That’s probably not a good idea, right? So, he was fired. So, “to be fired” means you lose your job. Your job is cut. You’re done. So, he was fired from his job. So in this case, this means he was removed from his job for skipping work. We use “from” to show the location or the condition or in this case, the position that is no longer there, so the person was removed from that.

Let’s look at another example of this.

“She was removed from the group chat.”

So, this refers to a text message situation, for example, someone sends too many text messages, you might think, oh my gosh, this is too much. So, someone removes someone else from the group chat. So, again, we have “from” before the thing the person was taken out of. So, “She was removed.” An important thing to note with this, this use of from is showing us with the grammar of the sentence, this person did not choose to leave. That person was removed from (something). So the grammar shows us it was not their choice. So, keep this in mind when you come across sentences like this.

Okay, last example sentence:

“The student was expelled from school.”

Expel is like fired, as we saw in this sentence, but from school. So, if a student has very, very bad behavior or there are some other kind of serious problem, the school might decide to cut the student out of a school. So, the student was expelled from school means the student was removed from a school. Again, this sentence would show us that the person in this situation did not choose or did not decide for this removal, but that’s the kind of a key with this use of “from.” So, keep this in mind. You can show that something or someone was removed from the situation.

Okay. So, those are 10 ways to use the word “from.” I hope that you found some different uses and some different patterns that you can use to apply this word in efficient and smooth ways in your own writing, in your own speaking. There are some other uses of “from” but for this lesson, I wanted to focus on these 10.

Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye!

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