# NGETTEXT

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
AUTHOR
REPORTING BUGS
COPYRIGHT
SEE ALSO

## NAME

ngettext - translate message and choose plural form

## SYNOPSIS

ngettext [OPTION] [TEXTDOMAIN] MSGID MSGID-PLURAL COUNT

## DESCRIPTION

The ngettext program translates a natural language message into the user’s language, by looking up the translation in a message catalog, and chooses the appropriate plural form, which depends on the number COUNT and the language of the message catalog where the translation was found.

Display native language translation of a textual message whose grammatical form depends on a number.

Options and arguments:
-d, --domain=TEXTDOMAIN

retrieve translated message from TEXTDOMAIN

-c, --context=CONTEXT

specify context for MSGID

| -e |  | enable expansion of some escape sequences |
| -E |  | (ignored for compatibility) |

[TEXTDOMAIN]

retrieve translated message from TEXTDOMAIN

MSGID MSGID-PLURAL

translate MSGID (singular) / MSGID-PLURAL (plural)

| COUNT |  | choose singular/plural form based on this value |

Informative output:
-h, --help

display this help and exit

-V, --version

display version information and exit

If the TEXTDOMAIN parameter is not given, the domain is determined from the environment variable TEXTDOMAIN. If the message catalog is not found in the regular directory, another location can be specified with the environment variable TEXTDOMAINDIR. Standard search directory: /@unixroot/usr/share/locale

## AUTHOR

Written by Ulrich Drepper and Bruno Haible.

## REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs in the bug tracker at <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext> or by email to <bug-gettext@gnu.org>.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 1995-2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

## SEE ALSO

The full documentation for ngettext is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and ngettext programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info ngettext

should give you access to the complete manual.