原來A，如今Bgrammar point · tier 2 · 原來A，如今B — the way it used to be, the way it is now (former state vs. present state)
Contrasts an earlier state of affairs with the different one that has replaced it by now.
字源 FORM what the parts do
原 is a spring (泉) under a cliff (厂) — the source, the way a thing first stood; 來 is the wheat graph long borrowed to write 'come', lending its come-forward sense, so 原來 carries the original state forward as the starting point. 如 is a woman (女) and a mouth (口), to go along as; 今 is a graph borrowed to write 'now', so 如今 lands on the present. One pair fixes the former state, the other the state that stands today, and the comma marks the line crossed between them.
故事 STORY a scene to remember it by
Upstream, the channel runs the old way it always ran; downstream, past one bend, the same water now runs another course.
字源記憶法
框 · Frame
原來 [former state]，如今 [present state]
觸 · Trigger
You want to set how a thing used to be against how it stands now, marking that it changed.
序 · The move
1name the earlier state and put 原來 in front of itis this how the thing stood before, the state that got replaced?
2after the comma, open with 如今 and give the present statedoes 如今 land on how it stands today, not just any later time?
3confirm the two states genuinely differ across the divideif nothing changed between then and now, the frame has no contrast to carry
例 · Examples
1這塊地原來formerly; in the earlier state種to grow; to plant香蕉，如今nowadays; as things stand now改種switched to growing芒果。
This plot of land used to grow bananas; now it grows mangoes instead.
Paired with 如今, 原來 means 'formerly' — a past state set against a present one. Standing alone before a realization (原來如此, 原來你早就知道), 原來 reports a discovery: it turns out it was so all along, and nothing changed but your knowledge. The 如今 partner forces the time-contrast reading.
雖然…但是… concedes an expectation, then turns against it within one situation. 原來…如今… sets a former state against a present state across a span of time. One reverses a judgment; the other reports a change.
這塊地原來種香蕉，現在種芒果，原來這裡能種水果 (sliding into the discovery sense mid-frame) → keep both halves as states: 原來種香蕉，如今改種芒果
原來他很高 (a fixed trait, no change to mark) → 他原來住鄉下，如今搬到城裡了
如今原來種香蕉 (anchors swapped, present before former) → 原來種香蕉，如今種芒果
English 'originally/used to' can sit anywhere and needs no paired 'now'; learners drop 如今 or use 原來 for any past time, losing the then-vs-now contrast the frame is built to carry.