很久以前，他是一個百萬富翁。

He was a millionaire a long time ago.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 很 hěn
  1. very; quite
  2. (also, often used before an adjective without intensifying its meaning, i.e. as a meaningless syntactic element)
2 久 jiǔ (of a period of time) long
3 以前 yǐqián
  1. before
  2. formerly
  3. previous
  4. ago
4 他 tā
  1. (third-person singular) (since the early 20th century, usu. male) he; him; his
  2. (bound form) other; another; some other (as in 他日 tārì and 他人 tārén)
=5 是 shì
  1. to be (followed by substantives only)
  2. correct; right; true
  3. (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well
  4. (adverb for emphatic assertion)
=5 是 shì variant of 是 shì
=6 一個 yīge
  1. a; an; one
  2. the whole (afternoon, summer vacation etc)
=6 一個 yīgè
  1. Combination of the numeral 一 (“one”) and the generic classifier 個／个: a; an; one
  2. same
7 百萬富翁 bǎiwànfùwēng millionaire