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>> [: Luciano Montanaro :]
>> Actually, while Italian has a simple singular/plural form, to properly
>> compose a phrase containing a number preceded by a determinative(?)
>> article (for example, "take the %n items...") the "the" article can be
>> translated "i" or "gli" depending on the following number. Actually,
>> it's "i", unless the number is 8\d* or 11(\d{3})*, that is 8, 11,
>> eightysomething, eight hundredsomething, ... eleven thousand something,
>> and so on.
>>
>> Would it be possible to use scripting to to handle this situation?

> [: Abel Cheung :]
> Some personal pronouns may or may not change due to plural
> form, such as "your" (of course, expressed in chinese).
> So whether to use plural form or not is decided by sentence
> structure, and can't be categorized simply. Is there any plural
> infrastructure existing that can accomodate these kinds of
> situation?

I'd say that no special infrastructure is technically needed in both these=
=20
cases. It is just that for Italian you could use 3 plural forms (last two=20
being always the same, except when there is definite article), and for=20
Chinese 2 plurals forms (both same most of the time, except when you need=20
to modify possessive pronoun). Even for Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian, and I=20
imagine some other Slavic languages, an extra form for number 1 is=20
sometimes needed (typically when English singular itself doesn't contain a=
=20
number, like "Delete this file?" / "Delete these %n files?"), and that=20
would prop our number of plural forms to 4.

One could however debate whether the overhead to translators, of having an=
=20
extra plural form although most of the time it is not needed, is=20
justified. If not, then scripting would of course be a viable alternative,=
=20
if and when it becomes available in KDE 4. On the other hand, the evidence=
=20
is mounting that Gettext's own plural handling may need some expanding.

=2D-=20
Chusslove Illich (=D0=A7=D0=B0=D1=81=D0=BB=D0=B0=D0=B2 =D0=98=D0=BB=D0=B8=
=D1=9B)
Serbian KDE translation team

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