本來grammar point · tier 1 · 本來 originally / at the root (the way it stood before it changed)
Marks the original state of affairs as a starting point that something later moved away from.
字源 FORM what the parts do
本 is a tree (木) with one stroke cut low across the trunk: the root, the origin a thing grows from. 來 is the graph of wheat that was borrowed long ago to write 'come', and that come-forward sense is what it lends here. Together they fix a thing at its root and carry it forward from there — how it stood at the start, before later turns moved it.
故事 STORY a scene to remember it by
A seedling holds the spot where its root first struck; the stem keeps climbing up and away from that fixed point.
字源記憶法
框 · Frame
本來 [original state], 後來/現在 [what it changed into]
觸 · Trigger
You want to say how things originally stood, on the way to saying they changed.
序 · The move
1name the original state and put 本來 in front of itis this the state at the start, not just a past time?
2follow it with the turn — 後來 or 現在 + what it becameis there a later state it moved to?
3confirm the two states genuinely differif nothing changed, 本來 has nothing to mark
例 · Examples
1我們本來originally; at first不認識did not know (each other)，後來later聊了一下就熟familiar; close了。
We didn't know each other at first; later we chatted a bit and got close.
以前 places an event at an earlier point on the clock (before now, before some moment). 本來 names the original state, set against how it later turned out. 以前 answers when; 本來 sets up a change.
原來 reports a discovery — it turns out things were so all along. 本來 reports an original state that then changed. With 原來 nothing changes but your knowledge; with 本來 the situation itself moves.
我本來去過日本 → 我以前去過日本 (a past event on the clock, no change to mark, takes 以前)
本來他是醫生 (本來 trailing the subject) → 他本來是醫生，後來改行了
本來下雨了 (no later state given) → 本來下雨，後來就停了
English originally/at first can sit anywhere and needs no follow-up; learners use 本來 for any past time and forget to supply the change it points toward.