I only recently learned about the ば form conditional. But I knew about 例えば through anime and also my 先生 uses it a lot. I just memorised it as a single word and didn’t know it is actually a ば form as well.
What are other examples of common words that actually illustrate a grammar point?
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It isn’t the ば form of 例える though–that would be 例えれば！例えば is the ば form of 例う, which is otherwise archaic and obsolete. The general gist of your revelation isn’t wrong, but do note those details!
I like how つまらない is originally “something that doesn’t 詰まる.”
ありがとう is just a mutated version of ありがたく (gratefully). Every so often you’ll see the -aku on an adjective become -ou, usually archaic stuff or regional accents.
おはよう too. Literally お早くございます = “It’s early.”
とりあえず
あいかわらず
行ってきます
Could you say 行ってくる in a casual setting?
I mean like, most of them? Except for the basic particles and stuff like word order and the stems of verbs and adjectives, most grammar points are just words that work in a not quite obvious way. Even past tense is just the helper word た attached to a verb stem.
相変わらず (not that ZU is rare, or obselete, but)
さようなら grammatically means
そうなら, but uses older grammar if I am not wrong.