他窮了一輩子。

He has been poor all his life.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 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)
2 窮 qióng
  1. poor
  2. destitute
  3. to use up
  4. to exhaust
  5. thoroughly
  6. extremely
  7. (coll.) persistently and pointlessly
=3 了 le
  1. (completed action marker)
  2. (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now)
  3. (modal particle intensifying preceding clause)
=3 了 liǎo
  1. to finish
  2. (used with 得 dé or 不 bù after a verb to express (im)possibility, as in 忘不了 wàngbuliǎo "cannot forget")
  3. (literary) (usually followed by a negative such as 無 wú or 不 bù) completely (not); entirely (not); (not) in the least
  4. to understand clearly (variant of 瞭 liǎo)
=3 了 liǎo
  1. (of eyes) bright
  2. clear-sighted
  3. to understand clearly
=3 了 liào unofficial variant of 瞭 liào
4 一輩子 yībèizi (for) a lifetime