“I don't think we should buy the car.” “Why not?” “To begin with, I'm not sure we can afford it.”“我认为我们不该买车。”“为什么？”“首先，我们能否买得起我没有把握。”

She has lost a lot of weight, and she wasn't very heavy to begin with.她体重减了不少，而且原本她就不是很重。

She didn't like her job to begin with, [=at first, initially] but she got used to it eventually.刚开始她并不喜欢自己的工作，但最后就适应了。