There...

[Tomii515]

how would you say:

There was....

cause in the story im making it says:

Once apon a time, there was a boy and a girl.

Mukashi mukashi, [there] wa otoko no ko to onna no ko deshita.

how wouyld u say there?

 

[KrazyKat]

was is a past form of the verb to be. The Japanese equivalents of these verb are arimasu (for nonliving things) and imasu (for living things). (desu is a seperate issue, I think you know about it already, its like an = sign)

むかしむかし、少年と少女がいました。

 

[nice gaijin]

replace "deshita" with "ga imashita"

you can't directly translate "there" as it is used in English in this context, but "imasu" is the word you're looking for.

 

[Tomii515]

Mukashi mukashi, otoko no ko to onna no ko ga ita.

is that it?

 

[KrazyKat]

Yes.

(It wouldn't let me post such a short message so I've written a bit more. )

 

[Kyoko_desu]

Lots of Japanese folk stories start with a line "Mukashi mukashi, aru tokoro ni ~~~~ ga sunde imashita." You can put "otoko no ko to onna no ko" into where I put "~~~".

 

[nice gaijin]

good idea, perhaps tomii could look up the story of momotaro as an example. 桃太郎

 

[Mike Cash]

Think about the function.

With "there was" you are indicating existence. Now, think about how you indicate existence in Japanese.