Hy het eens hier gewoon.

In this sentence, gewoon is not the adjective ordinary/normal.

Here it is the past participle of the verb woon, which means to live or to reside.

So:

• woon = to live
• gewoon = lived

The context makes this clear, because it comes after het, which is the normal past-tense helper verb in Afrikaans.

So Hy het eens hier gewoon means He once lived here, not He was once ordinary here.

Afrikaans usually expresses the past with:

het + past participle

So:

• Hy woon hier = He lives here
• Hy het hier gewoon = He lived here / He has lived here

For most ordinary verbs, Afrikaans prefers this perfect-style past where English often uses a simple past.

That means English He lived here is very naturally rendered as Hy het hier gewoon in Afrikaans.

The basic verb is woon.

To make the past participle, Afrikaans often adds ge- to the front:

• woon → gewoon

So in this sentence:

• woon = infinitive
• gewoon = past participle

This is a very common pattern in Afrikaans.

Here eens means once, at one time, or formerly.

So the sentence suggests that at some point in the past, he lived here.

It does not mainly stress one single occasion in the way English once sometimes can. It is closer to:

• once
• formerly
• at one time

If you want to emphasize one time as a count, Afrikaans often uses een keer instead.

It is perfectly understandable, but it can sound a bit more literary, formal, or old-fashioned than some other choices.

In everyday speech, people might more often say:

• Hy het vroeër hier gewoon. = He used to live here / He lived here before.
• Hy het eenmaal hier gewoon. = He once lived here.

So eens is correct, but it is not always the most casual everyday option.

Because in a normal Afrikaans main clause, the finite verb comes early, usually in the second position, and the past participle often goes to the end.

So the structure is:

• Hy = subject
• het = finite verb
• eens hier = middle part
• gewoon = past participle at the end

This is a very typical Afrikaans pattern:

• Hy het hier gewerk.
• Sy het die boek gelees.
• Ons het daar gebly.

So Hy het eens hier gewoon follows a normal word-order pattern.

Yes, a little.

Afrikaans allows some movement of adverbs like eens and hier, depending on emphasis and style. For example:

• Hy het eens hier gewoon.
• Hy het hier eens gewoon.

Both are possible, though the first version is a very natural neutral sentence.

But gewoon normally stays near the end in this kind of past construction.

Also, if you start with another element, the verb still stays in second position:

• Hier het hy eens gewoon. = Here he once lived.

Yes, often it could.

Depending on context, Hy het eens hier gewoon can feel very close to:

• He once lived here
• He used to live here
• He formerly lived here

The exact English translation depends on the tone and surrounding context.

If the point is simply that this was true in the past but is no longer true now, He used to live here is often a very natural translation.

You move the finite verb het to the front:

• Het hy eens hier gewoon?

That means:

• Did he once live here?
• Has he ever lived here before? depending on context

This is the normal yes/no question pattern in Afrikaans.

For a plain negative, Afrikaans uses double negation:

• Hy het nie hier gewoon nie. = He did not live here.

If you keep eens, the meaning can shift depending on placement. For example:

• Hy het nie eens hier gewoon nie.

This usually means something more like:

• He didn’t even live here
• He never even lived here
• He did not so much as live here

So if you just want the simple opposite of He once lived here, it is often clearer to use:

• Hy het nooit hier gewoon nie. = He never lived here.