Usage example in i18n docs is bad advice for plurals

[Ned Batchelder]

This example in the i18n docs:

Lets see a slightly more complex usage example::

    from django.utils.translation import ungettext
    from myapp.models import Report

    count = Report.objects.count()
    if count == 1:
        name = Report._meta.verbose_name
    else:
        name = Report._meta.verbose_name_plural

    text = ungettext(
            'There is %(count)d %(name)s available.',
            'There are %(count)d %(name)s available.',
            count
    ) % {
        'count': count,
        'name': name
    }

Here we choose between two forms of name (singular and plural) based on whether the count is 1 or not. That is the rule in English, but not in other languages. The whole point of ungettext is to defer the logic that performs the mapping from number to text, since it depends on the language.

Unfortunately, I think the only solution is to use more stilted language:

text = ungettext(
    'There is %(count)d %(name)s object available.',
    'There are %(count)d %(name)s objects available.',
    count
) % {
    'count': count,
    'name': Report._meta.verbose_name,
}

and ignore the verbose_name_plural altogether.