pluralcategory

Pluralcategory is a label used in linguistics and software localization to describe the plural form category assigned to a numeric quantity in a given locale. It is used to select the correct noun form in translations and to drive pluralization rules in programming.

Plural category values often include zero, one, two, few, many, and other. Different languages use different subsets of these categories; some distinguish only singular and plural, while others differentiate multiple forms. The classification depends on locale-specific rules defined by standards such as CLDR and implemented in software libraries.

Determining the category depends on both locale and number. For English, 1 maps to one and all other numbers map to other. Languages like Arabic have six categories: zero, one, two, few, many, and other, with mappings such as 0 → zero, 1 → one, 2 → two, 3–10 → few, 11–99 → many, and others → other. The exact boundaries vary by locale and are specified in rule sets maintained by internationalization projects.

In software, pluralcategory is used to select the correct form of a word based on a number. Modern i18n libraries expose a pluralCategory or similar value; for example, using JavaScript’s Intl.PluralRules, pl.select(1) might return 'one', while pl.select(2) returns 'other'. These categories drive locale-aware rendering of messages and UI text.

See also: plurality, localization, CLDR, ICU, internationalization, gettext, plural rules.