Grammar
N(으)로 구성되다
Meaning
IntermediateN(eu)ro guseongdoeda
N(으)로 구성되다 says what a whole is made up of: the subject is the whole, and the (으)로 phrase holds the parts it consists of. It is the passive of 구성하다 (to make up, to compose), so nothing is said about who assembled it — the composition is reported as a fact about the thing itself. Korean policy and organisational writing states the make-up of a committee, a team, a course or a set almost exclusively this way, and the counts attached to each part are usually the point: 민간위원 13명과 정부위원 6명으로 구성된다 tells the reader where the balance of that body sits, which can be the most consequential thing in the sentence.
Form
Attach (으)로 to the noun naming the parts — 로 after a vowel or a ㄹ-final noun, 으로 after any other consonant — and put the whole in the subject slot: 위원회는 전문가 10명으로 구성됩니다. Several kinds of part are joined with 와/과 or 및 inside one (으)로 phrase, and the particle attaches once, to the last item: 민간위원과 정부위원으로 구성됩니다. Counters stay with their nouns (전문가 10명으로). The modifying form 구성된 is very common in front of a noun: 전문가로 구성된 위원회. The active counterpart 구성하다 turns the sentence around, taking the parts as subject and the whole as object: 전문가 10명이 위원회를 구성합니다.
Examples
위원회는 전문가 10명으로 구성됩니다.
The committee is made up of ten experts.
From: The 7th National Bioethics Committee Convenes to Review End-of-Life Care and AI Health Data
연구팀은 질화규소·이산화규소·질화규소로 구성된 다층 절연막을 사용했습니다.
The team used a multilayer insulating film made up of silicon nitride, silicon dioxide and silicon nitride.
이 강좌는 이론 수업 4회와 실습 2회로 구성됩니다.
The course consists of four lectures and two practical sessions.
Common mistakes & nuance
The trap is the particle. This 로 marks what a thing is made of, not what it is made with, so 전문가 10명으로 구성됩니다 is 'is made up of ten experts' — the experts ARE the committee, not a tool used to build one. Learners who reach for the means sense of -(으)로 first read the sentence as if somebody assembled the body by employing ten experts, which is a different claim. Keep the shape too: 구성되다 is one word, and in front of a noun the form is 구성된 (the whole seen as composed), not 구성하는.
Similar grammar
- N(으)로 나뉘다
The mirror image, and the particle does not tell them apart — only the verb does. 구성되다 starts from the parts and builds the whole (ten experts make one committee); 나뉘다 starts from the whole and cuts it up (one exhibition falls into two themes). Both put the parts after (으)로, so a reader who skims to the particle and stops has the direction of the sentence still undecided.
- -(으)로
This pattern uses one specific sense of the plain particle — the material or stuff something is made out of (곡식과 과일로, 'out of grains and fruit') — and not the means, direction or role senses that entry also lists. Knowing which of the five is in play is the whole reading of the sentence here.