once upon a time

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈwʌns.əˈpɒn.əˈtaɪ̯m/

Adverb

once upon a time (not comparable)

1. The traditional beginning of children’s stories, especially fairy tales.
2. A long time ago (typically said of something that is not well remembered).

   I don't speak Spanish, but I could read it pretty well once upon a time.

Translations

Note: Many of the translations are literally “There once was”. The translation of “Once upon a time, there was a princess” into Italian, for example, would therefore be “C’era una volta una principessa” (literally, “There was once a princess”) rather than the literal “C’era una volta c’era una principessa”, which would mean “There was once there was a princess” [sic].

traditional beginning of children’s stories, especially fairy tales

• Abenaki: agwa
• Albanian: na ishte njëherë
• Algerian Arabic: جيتك ما جيتك (ḥaytek mā ḥaytek)
• Arabic: كان يا ماكان (ar) (kān yā mākān)
• Armenian: կար-չկար (hy) (kar-čkar), լինում է, չի լինում (hy) (linum ē, či linum)
• Asturian: ello foi una vegada (ast)
• Basque: bazen behin (eu), behin batean (eu)
• Catalan: hi havia una vegada, això era una vegada
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 很久很久以前 (cmn) (hěnjiǔ hěnjiǔ yǐqián), 從前 (cmn), 从前 (cmn) (cóngqián)

• Danish: der var engang (da)
• Dutch: er was eens (nl)
• Esperanto: iam estis
• Estonian: oli kord (et), elas kord (et)
• Finnish: olipa kerran, olipa kerran kauan sitten
• French: il était une fois (fr), il y avait une fois
• Georgian: იყო და არა იყო რა (iqo da ara iqo ra)
• German: es war einmal (de)
• Greek: μια φορά κι έναν καιρό (el) (mia forá ki énan kairó) (mia forá ki énan kairó)
• Hebrew: לפני שנים רבות (lifnei shanim rabot)
• Hindi: किसी ज़माने में (hi) (kimī jaṃāne meṃ)
• Hungarian: egyszer volt, hol nem volt, hol volt, hol nem volt
• Icelandic: einu sinni var (is), það var einu sinni (is)
• Igbo: orue otu mgbe
• Irish: bhí ... ann fadó (The subject of the sentence comes between "bhí" and "ann", e.g. "Once upon a time there was a king" = "Bhí rí ann fadó". Literally means "A long time ago there was...".)
• Italian: c'era una volta (it)
• Japanese: 昔々, 昔昔 (むかしむかし, mukashi-mukashi), 今は昔 (imawa mukashi)

• Komi: оліс-выліс
• Korean: 옛날 옛적에 (ko) (yetnal yetjeoke)
• Latin: olim (la)
• Latvian: reiz sensenos laikos
• Lithuanian: seniai, labai seniai (lt)
• Malay: pada suatu masa (ms), pada suatu hari (ms)
• Norwegian: det var en gang (no)
• Persian: روزی روزگاری (fa) (ruzi ruzegâri), یکی بود یکی نبود (fa) (yeki bud yeki nabud) ("there was one, there was none"), روزی از روزها (fa) (ruzi az ruz-hâ)
• Polish: był raz, dawno dawno temu (pl)
• Portuguese: era uma vez (pt)
• Romanian: a fost odată (ro)
• Russian: давным-давно (davným-davnó), в тридевятом царстве, в тридесятом государстве (v tridevjátom cárstve, v tridesjátom gosudárstve), жил-был (žil-byl)
• Sanskrit: पुराकाले (sa) (pūrākāle), कदाचित् (sa) (kadājit)
• Scottish Gaelic: bha siud ann uaireigin (gd)
• Serbian:

  Cyrillic: некада давно, била једном једна, једном давно

  Roman: nekada davno, bila jednom jedna, jednom davno

• Slovak: kde bolo, tam bolo, za siedmimi horami, za siedmimi dolami
• Spanish: érase una vez, había una vez, era una vez
• Swahili: hapo zamani za kale (sw)
• Swedish: det var en gång (sv)
• Tamil: முன்பு ஒது தாள் (munbu odu tāl), முன்பு ஒது காலம் (munbu odu kālam)
• Telugu: ఒకానొకప్పుడు (te) (okaanokappuDu)
• Thai: กาลครั้งหนึ่ง (kan khrang nueng)
• Tok Pisin: bipo tru (tpi)
• Turkish: Bir varmış bir yokmuş (tr)
• Vietnamese: ngày xửa ngày xưa (vi)
• Wolof: amone nafi (wo)

External links

• Once upon a time (phrase) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Once upon a time (phrase)