Each language has its own grammatical forms for singular and plural phrases.
Example:
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English has two forms: one and other, as in 1 file and 2 files.
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Other languages may have one or even several forms: one, few, and other.
This presents a challenge for localization.
The translation of plural-sensitive strings is supported. These strings must be translated using the plural forms based on the plural rules of the target language. These plural forms must be defined in the source file.
Example:
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The English string There are %d% items left, where %d% represents any number except 1.
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In Czech, this needs to to be translated in two ways.
The first for numbers 2, 3 or 4 (i.e. few) and the second for numbers 0, 5 and more (i.e. other).
PO (gettext) files commonly use plural forms as well as ICU messages.
For more information about plural rules, see CLDR plural rules.
Handling plural forms
Many localization file formats are supported and handle plural values in different ways. The most common ways are presented for each format.
The number of plural forms is automatically handled according to Unicode rules. This means that some languages have up to 6 forms, while others have only a few.
Plural forms are handled in the tab of the window.
When adding a locale to a project and providing the ISO code, the plural forms process is supported by displaying the correct input fields for that language.
Plural forms can also be enabled on a per-key basis in the tab of a project. To mark a key as having pluralized translations, select More/Keys and click the cog wheel icon to open the window. Then, select on the tab. Ensure a is provided if required by the used format (e.g., when using gettext).