(gettext.info)Translating plural forms

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12.6 Translating plural forms
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   Suppose you are translating a PO file, and it contains an entry like
this:

     #, c-format
     msgid "One file removed"
     msgid_plural "%d files removed"
     msgstr[0] ""
     msgstr[1] ""

What does this mean?  How do you fill it in?

   Such an entry denotes a message with plural forms, that is, a message
where the text depends on a cardinal number.  The general form of the
message, in English, is the ‘msgid_plural’ line.  The ‘msgid’ line is
the English singular form, that is, the form for when the number is
equal to 1.  More details about plural forms are explained in Note:
Plural forms.

   The first thing you need to look at is the ‘Plural-Forms’ line in the
header entry of the PO file.  It contains the number of plural forms and
a formula.  If the PO file does not yet have such a line, you have to
add it.  It only depends on the language into which you are translating.
You can get this info by using the ‘msginit’ command (see Note:
Creating) – it contains a database of known plural formulas – or by
asking other members of your translation team.

   Suppose the line looks as follows:

     "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;\n"

   It’s logically one line; recall that the PO file formatting is
allowed to break long lines so that each physical line fits in 80
monospaced columns.

   The value of ‘nplurals’ here tells you that there are three plural
forms.  The first thing you need to do is to ensure that the entry
contains an ‘msgstr’ line for each of the forms:

     #, c-format
     msgid "One file removed"
     msgid_plural "%d files removed"
     msgstr[0] ""
     msgstr[1] ""
     msgstr[2] ""

   Then translate the ‘msgid_plural’ line and fill it in into each
‘msgstr’ line:

     #, c-format
     msgid "One file removed"
     msgid_plural "%d files removed"
     msgstr[0] "%d slika uklonjenih"
     msgstr[1] "%d slika uklonjenih"
     msgstr[2] "%d slika uklonjenih"

   Now you can refine the translation so that it matches the plural
form.  According to the formula above, ‘msgstr[0]’ is used when the
number ends in 1 but does not end in 11; ‘msgstr[1]’ is used when the
number ends in 2, 3, 4, but not in 12, 13, 14; and ‘msgstr[2]’ is used
in all other cases.  With this knowledge, you can refine the
translations:

     #, c-format
     msgid "One file removed"
     msgid_plural "%d files removed"
     msgstr[0] "%d slika je uklonjena"
     msgstr[1] "%d datoteke uklonjenih"
     msgstr[2] "%d slika uklonjenih"

   You noticed that in the English singular form (‘msgid’) the number
placeholder could be omitted and replaced by the numeral word “one”.
Can you do this in your translation as well?

     msgstr[0] "jednom datotekom je uklonjen"

Well, it depends on whether ‘msgstr[0]’ applies only to the number 1, or
to other numbers as well.  If, according to the plural formula,
‘msgstr[0]’ applies only to ‘n == 1’, then you can use the specialized
translation without the number placeholder.  In our case, however,
‘msgstr[0]’ also applies to the numbers 21, 31, 41, etc., and therefore
you cannot omit the placeholder.