"Once upon a time there was a princess" translation help?

Question

Would it be

"érase una vez una princesa"

-or-

"érase una vez había una princesa"

?

Or is something totally different?

Thank you for you help

Welcome to the forum:-) - 00494d19, Sep 2, 2010

Answer 1

Every good tale has to start with Érase una vez, and if you want to use it, what you can't do is using another verb afterwards. Why? Because érase una vez lacks a subject, so if it means literally "once it was" you need to say what it was, you don't need to add "there was..."

So then we'll have érase una vez una princesa (the other one would sound like "once it was there was a princess").

If you'd like to mantain "había una princesa" you should change the beginning: Había una vez una princesa (without "érase"); Hace mucho tiempo había una princesa...

Answer 2

Why? Because érase una vez lacks a subject

Sorry to correct you, but what follows after that expression is, grammatically speaking, the subject of the sentence (your statement would be a cross in a syntax exam.) In practice, because "Había una vez..." has no subject, some people feel that "Érase..." doesn't have one either, and it should also be in singular all the time, but you can also find "Éranse un niño y una niña", which is what grammars recommend.

I agree with you about the rest.

It seems I need to learn to express myself right because I didn't mean there was no need of subject after érase. Thank you anyway for making ir clearer - LoaEtayo, Sep 2, 2010

Don't worry, I'm a grammatical nitpicker. - lazarus1907, Sep 2, 2010