AboutAndrew Russell Expertise You can try me on any point of grammar and structure, or on vocabulary. English comes alive most in its usage, and I am very experienced with questions of that kind. One of the pleasures of teaching second-language English is when a student raises a point that I have never had to think about before. I work in British English, but have enough knowledge of American and other variations to be able to help.
I'm afraid I don't have the time to to any proofreading, so would have to reject requests, and can't help with translations from other languages. Also, having two small children to keep me busy, questions asked at weekends may have to wait until Monday.
Experience I have been teaching English for 20 years, on and off, and now run my own small school attached to a theatre and arts centre in Chelsea, London.
Organizations NATFHE (lecturers' and teachers' union)
Education/Credentials University to BSc (Zoology)
Certificate in TEFL, but mostly educated on the job.
Past/Present Clients Literally hundreds of students over the years, as a teacher, many more as a Director of Studies, School Administrator and Director.
If you wish, you can check out my school at: www.theenglishschool.co.uk
But please don't use this to ask questions - that's what Allexperts is for.
Expert: Andrew Russell Date: 6/28/2008 Subject: make a meal
Question Dear Andrew,
Would you say that MAKE A MEAL OF and MAKE A MEAL FROM are equivalent in meaning:
The men made a meal from bread and the meat that had been cooked the night before.
I could have made a meal of the pickled beets and cheese rolls and left happy.
Thank you,
Yuri
Answer Dear Yuri,
Careful here, because 'to make of meal of smg' is actually an idiom, and not to do with food.
In both your examples, 'from' would be correct, because you take the starting materials/ingredients etc and make something 'from' them. It needn't be only cooking, any process in which 'raw' materials are used to make a 'finished' product can use this form. You could also use 'out of' instead.
To 'make a meal of something' means to exaggerate the significance or the amount of effort you have had to put in to something; and is usually used to criticise, such as:
"John really made a meal of sorting out his desk. It took him all day, whereas I was finished before lunch."
"Honestly, it was only a few spelling mistakes, but my boss really made a meal of it. He was complaining all day."
