元々

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 元々 is read as もともと and is an adverb showing that a state was already true before a later time or change.
• Basic usage: Use 元々倉庫だった for an original use and 元々絵を描くのが好きだった for an established preference.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Past state and continuing disposition
  • With the building it identifies an earlier function; with the person it indicates a preference held from before.
• Relation to the present
  • 元々 supplies the prior state, but whether that state continues now or has changed must come from the surrounding context.