# Handling plural forms in activity pub localization strings

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/handling-plural-forms-in-activity-pub-localization-strings/363687>\
**Category:** Translations\
**Tags:** activitypub\
**Created:** [April 27, 2025, 8:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/handling-plural-forms-in-activity-pub-localization-strings/363687 "2025-04-27T20:14:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 15

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Moin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/moin/32/554653_2.png) [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 1:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/handling-plural-forms-in-activity-pub-localization-strings/363687/15 "2025-11-04T01:16:11Z")

</div>

It’s quite off-topic as this topic was about allowing any way of having a different singular and plural version for these texts.

But maybe you could replace `1` with _“one”_ everywhere in the interface in English.  
However, that won’t work as easily in German. The problem is that in German, the word for “one” changes depending on **case, gender, and grammatical role**.

For example:

- The topic will remain open for **one month**. → _Das Thema ist noch **einen Monat** geöffnet._
- The topic will be closed in **one month**. → _Das Thema wird in **einem Monat** geschlossen._
- **One month** has passed. → _ **Ein Monat** ist vergangen._

So while it’s also common in German to write out numbers as words, handling this correctly is **grammatically complex**.  
You can’t just replace the number “1” with the word “eins,” because that form is **never** used before a noun and the right word form depends on the grammatical case.

In other words, using words instead of digits would create a lot more work for translators.  
You couldn’t simply use a placeholder like `%{duration}` that expands to “one month,” “one week,” or “one day” in all contexts.  
Instead of three durations and three sentences, you’d need a separate version for every possible grammatical combination - potentially multiplying the amount of text several times.

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/handling-plural-forms-in-activity-pub-localization-strings/363687)._