湯姆十三歲以前讀得不好。

Tom couldn't read very well until he was thirteen years old.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 湯姆 Tāngmǔ Tom (name)
2 十三 shísān
  1. thirteen
  2. 13
3 歲 suì
  1. classifier for years (of age)
  2. year
  3. year (of crop harvests)
4 以前 yǐqián
  1. before
  2. formerly
  3. previous
  4. ago
=5 讀 dòu
  1. comma
  2. phrase marked by pause
=5 讀 dú
  1. to read out; to read aloud
  2. to read
  3. to attend (school); to study (a subject in school)
  4. to pronounce
=6 得 dé
  1. to obtain
  2. to get
  3. to gain
  4. to catch (a disease)
  5. proper
  6. suitable
  7. proud
  8. contented
  9. to allow
  10. to permit
  11. ready
  12. finished
=6 得 dè used in 得瑟 dèse
=6 得 de structural particle: used after a verb (or adjective as main verb), linking it to following phrase indicating effect, degree, possibility etc
=6 得 děi
  1. to have to
  2. must
  3. ought to
  4. to need to
=7 不好 bùhǎo no good
=7 不好 bùhào to dislike; to be uninterested in