Once Upon A Time

[betsysimpkins]

Hola!

Can someone please give me a good translation for this. I see many students using "erase una vez"...but that just sounds wrong to me. There has to be a more common way.

Gracias!

betsy

[JPablo]

Mmm...

"Érase una vez..." is the standard Spanish way to start a tale...

Another could be, "Érase que se era..." (but that seems more complex for a new learner)

Oxford Bilingual gives,
once upon a time there was a princess = érase una vez
or había una vez una princesa

If you want to use the second Oxford "simpler" option, that will be understood, but the most common is the first one.

[betsysimpkins]

OK gracias! Había feels better to me but I will go with the common one since my gut isn't alway right.

Thanks!

[aleCcowaN]

Exactly, "había una vez una princesa" is the natural way to say it; "érase una vez" is a set expression, like an idiom meaning "había una vez".

[JPablo]

You're welcome.
Probably your feeling is right in terms of "more current" language. I.e., while the most common is "Érase una vez", it gives some slight "archaic" flavor... (If you use both, you cannot go wrong at all.)

Yup, Alec, is right. In Spain, the tradition is that your grandma will tell you tales... so she will say it with the set phrase... and so I bet Spanish translations of Andersen tales... Grimm et al will start with the "traditonal way"...