I open this issue since:

• ngettext is now supported by NVDA (I do not know exactly since when)
• A first use of ngettext has been introduced in Report appointment categories in Microsoft Outlook #11598 and Flexibility of outlook categories translation #12432
• Users and translators of some languages are waiting for plural forms to be supported (cf this thread). This seems to be more critical for languages such as slavic languages where many plural form exist.

Steps to reproduce:

• Go to a web page with lists, e.g. this issue:
• Arrow down to a list with one item, e.g. the example list below:
  • Example list item
• Listen what is reported

Actual behavior:

"List with 1 items" is reported.

Expected behavior:

"List with 1 item" is reported (no 's' to 'item')

System configuration

NVDA installed/portable/running from source:

source

NVDA version:

last alpha

Windows version:

10

Name and version of other software in use when reproducing the issue:

Other information about your system:

Other questions

Does the issue still occur after restarting your computer?

yes

Have you tried any other versions of NVDA? If so, please report their behaviors.

Same issue in 2020.4

If add-ons are disabled, is your problem still occurring?

yes

Does the issue still occur after you run the COM Registration Fixing Tool in NVDA's tools menu?

N/A

Implementation strategy

In initial description of #12432, @feerrenrut wrote:

We use ngettext in one location, essentially a trial for now.

Since the use of categories for Outlook calendar items impact few people, I would recommend:

1. Make a PR against beta introducing another test message with plural form more widely used. "List of n items" could be used.
2. Make a PR for 2021.2 for the remaining simple forms (only one value in the message)
3. Make a future separate PR for the more complex forms that may need to split the messages such as "table with x rows and y columns"; a gramatical analysis is required in order to know how to split the strings for this case.

A rapid estimation let me think that about 38 messages are concerned with plural forms.

@feerrenrut would you accept the first PR against beta to make a wider test?