Internationalization/plural forms - Revision history

Maser: /* Rules */ added arabic

2006-06-28T13:34:39Z

‎Rules: added arabic

Etienner at 06:11, 3 June 2006

2006-06-03T06:11:46Z

Etienner: added page to our category

2006-05-31T16:51:30Z

added page to our category

Etienner: /* =Three forms, special case for numbers ending in 1[2-9] */

2006-05-31T15:56:05Z

‎=Three forms, special case for numbers ending in 1[2-9]

Etienner: list of known forms

2006-05-31T14:44:27Z

list of known forms

New page

The information about the plural form selection has to be stored in the header entry of the PO file (the one with the empty msgid string). The plural form information looks like this:
::Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n == 1 ? 0 : 1;

The ''nplurals'' value must be a decimal number which specifies how many different plural forms exist for this language. The string following plural is an expression which is using the C language syntax. Exceptions are that no negative numbers are allowed, numbers must be decimal, and the only variable allowed is ''n''. This expression will be evaluated whenever one of the [[internationalization/translation_function|translation function]] for a "plural form" is called. The numeric value passed to these functions is then substituted for all uses of the variable n in the expression. The resulting value then must be greater or equal to zero and smaller than the value given as the value of ''nplurals''.

==Rules==
The (at this point) known rules are:
===Only one form===

Some languages only require one single form. There is no distinction between the singular and plural form. An appropriate header entry would look like this:

:Plural-Forms: nplurals=1; plural=0;

:Languages with this property include:
:*Finno-Ugric family
:*Hungarian
:*Asian family
:*Japanese, Korean
:*Turkic/Altaic family
:*Turkish

===Two forms, singular used for one only===

This is the form used in most existing programs since it is what English is using. A header entry would look like this:

:Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n != 1;
:::(Note: this uses the feature of C expressions that boolean expressions have to value zero or one.)

:Languages with this property include:
:*Germanic family
:*Danish, Dutch, English, German, Norwegian, Swedish
:*Finno-Ugric family
:*Estonian, Finnish
:*Latin/Greek family
:*Greek
:*Semitic family
:*Hebrew
:*Romanic family
:*Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
:*Artificial
:*Esperanto

===Two forms, singular used for zero and one===

Exceptional case in the language family. The header entry would be:

:Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n>1;

:Languages with this property include:
:*Romanic family
:*French, Brazilian Portuguese

===Three forms, special case for zero===

The header entry would be:

:Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : n != 0 ? 1 : 2;

:Languages with this property include:
:*Baltic family
:*Latvian

===Three forms, special cases for one and two===
The header entry would be:

:Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n==1 ? 0 : n==2 ? 1 : 2;

:Languages with this property include:
:*Celtic
:*Gaeilge (Irish)

===Three forms, special case for numbers ending in 1[2-9]==

The header entry would look like this:

:Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
::plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : \
::::::::n%10>=2 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;

:Languages with this property include:
:*Baltic family
:*Lithuanian

===Three forms, special cases for numbers ending in 1 and 2, 3, 4, except those ending in 1[1-4]===

The header entry would look like this:

:Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
::plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : \
::::n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;

:Languages with this property include:
:*Slavic family
:*Croatian, Czech, Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian

===Three forms, special case for one and some numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4===

The header entry would look like this:

:Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
::plural=n==1 ? 0 : \
::::n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;

:Languages with this property include:
:*Slavic family
:*Polish

===Four forms, special case for one and all numbers ending in 02, 03, or 04===

The header entry would look like this:

:Plural-Forms: nplurals=4; \
::plural=n%100==1 ? 0 : n%100==2 ? 1 : n%100==3 || n%100==4 ? 2 : 3;

:Languages with this property include:
:*Slavic family
:*Slovenian

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:11, 3 June 2006
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−	~~[[Category:Projects]]~~
	[[Category:Internationalization]]		[[Category:Internationalization]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:51, 31 May 2006
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		+	[[Category:Internationalization]]
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	The information about the plural form selection has to be stored in the header entry of the PO file (the one with the empty msgid string). The plural form information looks like this:		The information about the plural form selection has to be stored in the header entry of the PO file (the one with the empty msgid string). The plural form information looks like this:
	::Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n == 1 ? 0 : 1;		::Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n == 1 ? 0 : 1;

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 :Languages with this property include:
 :*Finno-Ugric family
-:*Hungarian
+:**Hungarian
 :*Asian family
-:*Japanese, Korean
+:**Japanese, Korean
 :*Turkic/Altaic family
-:*Turkish
+:**Turkish
 ===Two forms, singular used for one only===
@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 :Languages with this property include:
 :*Germanic family
-:*Danish, Dutch, English, German, Norwegian, Swedish
+:**Danish, Dutch, English, German, Norwegian, Swedish
 :*Finno-Ugric family
-:*Estonian, Finnish
+:**Estonian, Finnish
 :*Latin/Greek family
-:*Greek
+:**Greek
 :*Semitic family
-:*Hebrew
+:**Hebrew
 :*Romanic family
-:*Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
+:**Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
 :*Artificial
-:*Esperanto
+:**Esperanto
 ===Two forms, singular used for zero and one===
@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 :Languages with this property include:
 :*Romanic family
-:*French, Brazilian Portuguese
+:**French, Brazilian Portuguese
 ===Three forms, special case for zero===
@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 :Languages with this property include:
 :*Baltic family
-:*Latvian
+:**Latvian
 ===Three forms, special cases for one and two===
@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 :Languages with this property include:
 :*Celtic
-:*Gaeilge (Irish)
+:**Gaeilge (Irish)
 ===Three forms, special case for numbers ending in 1[2-9]===
@@ Line 82: / Line 84: @@
 :Languages with this property include:
 :*Baltic family
-:*Lithuanian
+:**Lithuanian
 ===Three forms, special cases for numbers ending in 1 and 2, 3, 4, except those ending in 1[1-4]===
@@ Line 94: / Line 96: @@
 :Languages with this property include:
 :*Slavic family
-:*Croatian, Czech, Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian
+:**Croatian, Czech, Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian
 ===Three forms, special case for one and some numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4===
@@ Line 106: / Line 108: @@
 :Languages with this property include:
 :*Slavic family
-:*Polish
+:**Polish
 ===Four forms, special case for one and all numbers ending in 02, 03, or 04===
@@ Line 117: / Line 119: @@
 :Languages with this property include:
 :*Slavic family
-:*Slovenian
+:**Slovenian