[Interest] Translating plural with is/are

[Frédéric Marchal]

2016-03-07 20:16 GMT+01:00 Jason H <jhihn at gmx.com>:
>> > Ok I'm getting there, but how do I specify this string (a) or that string (b)?
>> > What's the qsTr() line look like?
>> > qsTr( ? )
>>
>> http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/i18n-plural-rules.html
>>
>> and
>>
>> http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/i18n-source-translation.html
>>
>> -> chapter Handling Plurals
>
> Yeao, read them both before posting.
>
> Please provide the tr line as even after re-reading I don't think it (is/are selection) can be done, and please reference where the docs cover that syntax.
>
> To put it in s more documentation example way:
> Example: tr("%n message(s) saved", "", n) )
> What I want: tr("%n messages(s) [were|was] saved)", "", n) <- what do I need to modify here to get was/were resolving correctly?
>
> The page on http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/i18n-plural-rules.html does not seem to be of help. It only tells me the rules Qt uses internally for determining pluralization. I do not see how I can supply a plural and non-plural string, or a string that works in both contexts and included is/are or was/were, respectively.

I'm under the impression that you believe tr is responsible for
selecting the correct singular/plural form based on what string you
give to it in the source code.

As silly as it sound and just to strike that possibility out, tr is
not, by itself, deducing by some clever rules the singular or plural
form of the string given as argument.

The string itself is used as a key to look up the correct string to
display in a translation file (aka ts file). The string given to tr
doesn't have to be related in any way to the final displayed string
although it helps the translator greatly if they do :-). That's why
every sample code out there might mislead you into believing that tr
is doing all the work. In fact, the translator is doing the work
(using linguist).

If for instance I write tr("%n whatever rubbish I type here", "", n)
and the translator decides to translate "%n whatever rubbish I insert
here" with "One message was saved" for singular and "%n messages were
saved" for plural, then, the user will see those last two strings. The
user will never see the original "%n whatever rubbish I insert here"
string from the source code.

Now, you were told to use an en_US translation file because it is in
that file that you'll tell tr what the correct singular and plural
messages are.

The translation file is not exclusively used to translate your
application. It can be used to translate from bad/technical English
into proper English or, as in your case, to provide decent singular
and plural strings.

Frederic