It turns out / originally with 原来

Structure 原来 + (revelation or previous state)

原来 (yuánlái) has two senses. As a realization, "it turns out…" (you suddenly get it): 原来是你啊 = "oh, it’s you!". As time, "originally, at first" (it used to be so): 我原来不知道这件事 = "I didn’t know about this before". Context tells them apart.

Examples

原yuán来lái是shì你nǐ啊a！
Oh, it’s you!
我wǒ原yuán来lái不bù知zhī道dào这zhè件jiàn事shì。
I didn’t know about this before.
原yuán来lái他tā早zǎo就jiù走zǒu了le。
It turns out he’d left long ago.

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