Non-English Plurality

[Kurpaph]

While translating jamovi into Hebrew via Weblate I encountered the string "selected", as in selected variable(s) (string 386). In English it is very easy to have the same word both for singular and plural forms. However, in Hebrew you must match the verb form to the noun in plurality (as well as gender, of which I try so hard to avoid).
singular: נבחר
plural: נבחרו
I couldn't find a workaround for this problem, and I can assume it will happen again in other strings.
What can I do in this case and in similar ones?

[jonathon-love]

ah, thanks for raising this.

we have encountered this before, where a single term in english, maps to multiple terms in other languages.

what are the options here? 1, 1 or more, 2 or more?

in english we'd go selected variable, [the somewhat cumbersome] selected variable(s), and selected variables.

is the problem that you don't have a 1 or more?

with thanks

[Kurpaph]

After I continued translating, I found some more strings of the same problem: the strings filtered, deleted and added.

In these cases, the problem is indeed between singular (1) and plural (2 or more) (the case of couple, plural 2, does exist in Hebrew, but irrelevant here). The verb and the number in all strings need to match. I can, of course, use the plural in parenthesis, but as you said yourself, it's not ideal.

For example:
selected 1 – נבחר 1 (/nivkhar 1/)
selected 2 – נבחרו 2 (/nivkheru 2/)
selected n – נבחר(ו) n (/nivkhar/nivkheru n/)

I will do whatever you find best.

Thank you,

[jonathon-love]

so if i understand correctly, hebrew and english are in a very similar boat, in that there's no form for "one or more". in english we bastardise this with "selected variable(s)", however in hebrew this is even more cumbersome, because both words need to be pluralised? ("selected(s) variable(s)" if you like?)

correct me if i'm wrong with any of the above.

i suppose i'm wondering how other software solves this problem?

with thanks

jonathon

[Kurpaph]

You understood perfectly!

I am also wondering about other solutions. A short look at Excel in Hebrew gave no such cases to match (or maybe there is something, but they used only plural form for all quantity). And, unfortunately, there are too many softwares which are not being translated and localized to Hebrew. This is one reason I want to translate jamovi.

Much appreciating your help,
Kurpaph.

[jonathon-love]

but from a software design perspective, this is an unsolvable problem? and its going to be problematic in more domains that just software?

like in the supermarket, if you were providing instructions for people to select watermelons, and put them in their shopping cart/trolley, you're going to have the same problem? "place your selected(s) watermelon(s) into your shopping cart"?

there's not actually a way to solve this which isn't weird?

with thanks

jonathon