once upon a time

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /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”).

traditional beginning of children’s stories, especially fairy tales

• Abenaki: agwa
• Albanian: na ishte njëherë
• Arabic: كَان يَامَا كَان (kān yāmā kān)

  Algerian Arabic: جيتك ما جيتك (jaytek mā jaytek)

• Armenian: կար-չկար (kar-čʻkar), լինում է, չի լինում (linum ē, čʻi linum)
• Asturian: ello foi una vegada
• Azerbaijani: bir var idi, biri yox idi, günlərin bir günü
• Bashkir: борон-борон заманда (boron-boron zamanda)
• Basque: bazen behin (eu), behin batean (eu)
• Bulgarian: имало едно време (imalo edno vreme)
• Catalan: hi havia una vegada, això era una vegada
• Cebuano: kaniadtong panahona
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: bylo nebylo
• Danish: der var engang
• Dutch: er was eens
• Esperanto: iam estis
• Estonian: oli kord, elas kord, üks kord ennemuistsel ajal
• Faroese: einaferð var tað
• Finnish: olipa kerran, olipa kerran kauan sitten
• French: il était une fois (fr), il y avait une fois (fr)
• Galician: había unha vez, cando os animais falaban (literally “when animals spoke”)
• Georgian: იყო და არა იყო რა (iq̇o da ara iq̇o ra)
• German: es war einmal (de)
• Greek: μια φορά κι έναν καιρό (el) (mia forá ki énan kairó)
• Hebrew: הָיֹה הָיָה (he) m (hayó hayá)
• Hindi: किसी ज़माने में (kisī zamāne mẽ)
• Hungarian: egyszer volt, hol nem volt (hu), hol volt, hol nem volt
• Icelandic: einu sinni var, það var einu sinni
• Ido: olim (io)
• Igbo: orue otu mgbe
• Indonesian: pada suatu hari
• Irish: fadó fadó, tráth dá raibh, lá den saol
• Italian: c'era una volta
• Japanese: 昔昔 (むかしむかし, mukashi-mukashi), 今は昔 (imawa mukashi)
• Komi-Zyrian: оліс-выліс (olis-vylis)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 옛날 옛적에 (yetnal yetjeoke)
• Kurdish:
• Latin: ōlim
• Latvian: reiz sensenos laikos
• Lithuanian: seniai, labai seniai
• Malay: pada suatu masa, pada suatu hari
• Maori: tērā tētahi (singular), tērā ētahi (plural)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: det var en gang (no)

  Nynorsk: det var ein gong

• Old English: ǣr, ġēara, ġēardagum, fyrn, ġefyrn
• Persian: روزی روزگاری (ruzi ruzegâri), یکی بود یکی نبود (yeki bud yeki nabud), روزی از روزها (ruzi az ruz-hâ)
• Polish: pewnego razu; dawno, dawno temu (pl); za górami, za lasami
• Portuguese: era uma vez (pt)
• Romanian: a fost odată, a fost odată ca niciodată
• Russian: ^{(please verify)} давны́м-давно́ (ru) (davným-davnó), ^{(please verify)} в тридевя́том ца́рстве, в тридеся́том госуда́рстве (v tridevjátom cárstve, v tridesjátom gosudárstve), ^{(please verify)} жил-был (ru) (žil-byl)
• Sanskrit: पुराकाले (purākāle), कदाचित् (sa) (kadācit)
• Sardinian: B'aiat una borta
• Scottish Gaelic: bha siud ann uaireigin
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} некада давно, ^{(please verify)} била једном једна, ^{(please verify)} једном давно

  Roman: ^{(please verify)} nekada davno, ^{(please verify)} bila jednom jedna, ^{(please verify)} jednom davno

• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} kde bolo, tam bolo, ^{(please verify)} za siedmimi horami, za siedmimi dolami
• Spanish: érase una vez (es), había una vez (es), era una vez
• Swahili: hapo zamani za kale
• Swedish: det var en gång (sv)
• Tagalog: noóng unang panahón
• Tamil: முன்பு ஒது தாள் (muṉpu otu tāḷ), முன்பு ஒது காலம் (muṉpu otu kālam)
• Telugu: ఒకానొకప్పుడు (okānokappuḍu)
• Thai: กาลครั้งหนึ่ง (kan khrang nueng)
• Tok Pisin: bipo tru
• Turkish: Bir varmış bir yokmuş
• Ukrainian: жили-були (žyly-buly), давним давно (davnym davno)
• Urdu: کسی زمانے میں (kisī zamāne mẽ)
• Vietnamese: ngày xửa ngày xưa (vi)
• Welsh: unwaith (cy)
• Wolof: amone nafi

External links

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