Understanding Gettext Plurals: How to Handle Complex Pluralization in WordPress

In English, pluralization is simple. You have one "Apple," and you have two or more "Apples."

But if you are translating your WordPress site into Polish, Russian, or Arabic, you are about to walk into a linguistic minefield.

Did you know that in Russian, the word for "file" changes depending on whether you have 1 file, 2-4 files, or 5+ files?

• 1 файл (1 file)
• 3 файла (3 files)
• 5 файлов (5 files)

If your translation tool blindly assumes every language works like English (Singular vs. Plural), your users will see grammatically incorrect sentences that make your brand look unprofessional.

This guide explains how WordPress and Gettext handle these complex rules and how to automate them correctly.

The Technical Anatomy of a Plural String

In a standard .po file, a plural string looks like this:

msgid "You have %d new message"
msgid_plural "You have %d new messages"
msgstr[0] ""
msgstr[1] ""

• msgid: The singular form (used for count = 1).
• msgid_plural: The plural form (used for count != 1).
• msgstr[N]: The translations.

For English, you only need msgstr[0] (singular) and msgstr[1] (plural). But for other languages, you might need msgstr[2], msgstr[3], or even msgstr[5].

The Plural-Forms Header

How does WordPress know which msgstr to use? It looks at the header of your .po file.

For Russian, the header looks like this: "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);"

This terrifying mathematical formula tells WordPress:

1. There are 3 possible forms (nplurals=3).
2. Use Form 0 if the number ends in 1 (but not 11).
3. Use Form 1 if the number ends in 2-4 (but not 12-14).
4. Use Form 2 for everything else.

Why Most Translators Fail Here

When you use a generic AI wrapper or a basic automated tool, it often ignores the Plural-Forms header.

It sees the English input (2 forms) and tries to force it into the target language.

• The Error: It might fill msgstr[0] and msgstr[1], but leave msgstr[2] empty.
• The Result: When a Russian user has 5 messages, WordPress looks for Form 2. If it's empty or missing, WordPress usually falls back to the original English string.

Suddenly, your fully localized site displays "You have 5 new messages" in English, right in the middle of a Russian sentence. This breaks immersion and user trust.

The Solution: Context-Aware AI with Plural Support

Handling plurals correctly requires two things:

1. Strict adherence to Gettext standards: The tool must respect the nplurals count in the header.
2. Linguistic intelligence: The AI must know how to conjugate the words for those specific numeric ranges.

This is a native feature of SimplePoTranslate.

How We Handle Complex Plurals

We don't just translate text; we read the math in your .po header.

When you upload a file for translation into Polish (which has 3 plural forms):

1. Header Analysis: We detect nplurals=3.
2. Prompt Engineering: Our system instructs the Context-Aware AI: "Translate this string into Polish. Provide exactly 3 forms: one for singular, one for numbers ending in 2-4, and one for others."
3. Validation: We verify that the output contains exactly msgstr[0], msgstr[1], and msgstr[2] before compiling the file.

We handle this automatically. You don't need to know the grammar rules of the target language. You upload the file, and we populate every required plural form correctly.

Better Than Manual Translation?

Unless you speak the target language fluently, you cannot manually fill in these plural forms. You would be guessing. SimplePoTranslate leverages advanced LLMs that are trained on these exact grammatical rules, ensuring native-level accuracy.

Get Your Plurals Right

Don't let "1 Apple, 5 Apples" ruin your site's professional look. Use a tool that understands the complexity of global grammar.

SimplePoTranslate allows you to test our pluralization engine for free.

Ready to translate without the headache? Start for free at SimplePoTranslate.com