When translating between languages, it’s important to ensure that plural forms in the source and target languages are correctly mapped. This ensures that singular, plural and other grammatical forms are appropriately aligned in the target language.
Mapping source and target language plural forms
If the target language has a matching plural form, we map it directly from the source.
If the target language does not have a corresponding plural form, we default to the "other" form (Rule 5), which acts as a fallback.
Case 1: The target language has more forms than the source
Source (English):
one: Collaborator
other: Collaborators
Target (Russian):
one: Участник (mapped to "one")
few: Участника (mapped to "other")
many: Участников (mapped to "other")
other: участников (mapped to "other")
Case 2: The source language has more forms than the target
Russian uses several plural forms (one, few, many, and other), but English only has singular and plural forms.
Source (Russian):
one: Участник
few: Участника
many: Участников
other: участников
Target (English):
one: Collaborator (mapped to "one")
other: Collaborators (mapped to "other")
Case 3: The source and target language have the same forms
Both Russian and Polish have four plural forms, which match exactly, so they are mapped one-to-one.
Source (Russian):
one: Участник
few: Участника
many: Участников
other: участников
Target (Polish):
one: Uczestnik (mapped to "one")
few: uczestników (mapped to "few")
many: uczestników (mapped to "many")
other: uczestnika (mapped to "other")
Handling pluralized entries in Translation Memory (TM)
Updating Pluralized Translations
When you update pluralized translations in the editor, changes are tracked in the translation memory (TM):
Edit a pluralized entry: Update the translation and save.
Orphan handling: If the old translation is no longer relevant, it is marked as an "orphan" and removed from TM. Otherwise, the new translation is added without deleting the old one.
Bulk updates
When performing bulk updates:
Plural forms remain unchanged: The TM entries are refreshed, meaning the timestamp is updated.
Deleting pluralized translations
Orphan translations: If the translation is marked as an orphan, the old plural entry will be removed from the TM.
Viewing translation suggestions
Non-pluralized entries: Only the "other" form will be suggested.
Pluralized entries: If no exact plural matches exist, only the "other" form will be suggested.
Managing pluralized TM entries
Display in TM: Only the "other" form is shown in the TM.
Deleting plural forms: When the "other" form is deleted, all plural forms with the same ID will also be removed.
TM Leverage Reports
In translation memory leverage reports, only the "other" or non-pluralized forms are considered for pluralized entries.
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