pluralcompatible

Pluralcompatible is an adjective used in linguistics and software localization to describe content, components, or algorithms that can correctly handle pluralization across languages and locales. A pluralcompatible system can select the appropriate plural form based on a given quantity and the locale rules.

Plural forms vary across languages. English typically distinguishes singular and plural; Arabic has six forms; Russian and others have three or more. A pluralcompatible approach relies on locale-specific plural rules, usually sourced from standards such as the Unicode CLDR, and applies them to strings, messages, and data output.

In practice, pluralcompatible design is common in i18n libraries, templates, and content management systems. Strings with counts are stored with plural variants and a selector chooses the correct form at runtime. Example: in English, count=1 yields "item", else "items"; in Arabic, the same concept uses different forms depending on the number and context.

Implementation considerations include the maintenance of locale data, fallbacks when a locale is missing, and testing across edge cases (zero, one, many). Performance matters if plural rules are evaluated frequently, so caching is often used. Some systems use ICU MessageFormat or CLDR data to drive plural selection.

See also: pluralization, localization, internationalization, CLDR, ICU.