Today at 5:58, Not Zed wrote:
> We have some values that are in a table, like:
>
> Total messages: xx
> Unread messages: xx
>
> Dobey got carried away and made it an ngettext() thing, which breaks in
> English of course (maybe it's correct in American!).
You can call ngettext() simply using:
ngettext("Total messages: %d", "Total messages: %d", total);
i.e. there is no real need to use singular in the first message if
it's inappropriate for English. If you go this way, please add a
comment just before the ngettext call so translators will be alterted
to this.
> Is it appropriate
> to just use the 1 string for a table like this, for other languages as
> with English, or does it need some messy comment?
No, this is perfectly fine to stay as a single message. ngettext is
actually required if and only if the following two conditions are
fulfilled:
1. string includes something replaced with number in runtime
2. such replaced something is followed by a noun, adjective, adverb
or a similar word
Examples requiring ngettext:
- "Total %d messages"
- "for %l hours"
- "%d sent" (if meant as "%d sent messages", so "sent" is adjective
or whatever in English)
Examples NOT requiring ngettext:
- "Read all messages (%d)"
- "Read messages:" (even if you have separate "Read message" and
"Read messages", you don't need ngettext here)
- "Total messages: %d"
However, using ngettext in the last example (and what you are asking
for) would allow translators to use constructs such as "Total %d
messages" instead. I don't know if this is desirable or useful in
this context.
Cheers,
Danilo
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