[Richard Suchenwirth] - [Peter Lewerin] needed one for Tcl-PLEAC (see [BOOK Programming Language Examples Alike Cookbook]), so here goes (never written that many [return]s in my Tcl life ;-): But see [Custom curry] on how to style such switch branches without a mass of returns, and for German plurals ;-)

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[LV] Richard, is this based on the way that other PLEAC recipes are written?
The reason that I ask is that the [Perl] community has a number of modules for dealing with [Natural Languages], including one that generates plurals for English, I believe.  There might be some code that could be used for inspiration there.
[RS]: No, I didn't look hard at Perl-PLEAC, just stumbled over some pages in Tcl-Pleac. I noticed Peter had no content for this header, so I surfed the web, got me the plural rules, and wrote it down in some evening minutes. But I think it exposes the power of [switch], [regexp] sufficiently...

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 proc en:pl word {
    switch -- $word {
        man   {return men}
        foot  {return feet}
        goose {return geese}
        louse {return lice}
        mouse {return mice}
        ox    {return oxen}
        tooth {return teeth}
        calf - elf - half - hoof - leaf - loaf - scarf
        - self - sheaf - thief - wolf
              {return [string range $word 0 end-1]ves}
        knife - life - wife
              {return [string range $word 0 end-2]ves}
        auto - kangaroo - kilo - memo
        - photo - piano - pimento - pro - solo - soprano - studio
        - tattoo - video - zoo
              {return ${word}s}
        cod - deer - fish - offspring - perch - sheep - trout
        - species
              {return $word}
        genus {return genera}
        phylum {return phyla}
        radius {return radii}
        cherub {return cherubim}
        mythos {return mythoi}
        phenomenon {return phenomena}
        formula {return formulae}
    }
    switch -regexp -- $word {
      {[ei]x$}                  {return [string range $word 0 end-2]ices}
      {[sc]h$} - {[soxz]$}      {return ${word}es}
      {[bcdfghjklmnprstvwxz]y$} {return [string range $word 0 end-1]ies}
      {child$}                  {return ${word}ren}
      {eau$}                    {return ${word}x}
      {is$}                     {return [string range $word 0 end-2]es}
      {woman$}                  {return [string range $word 0 end-2]en}
    }
    return ${word}s
 }

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No warranty, but enjoy, and feel free to improve!
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[Peter Lewerin] (2001-12-29): I patched on a few word inflections in a quick-and-dirty manner just to match the example in the Perl Cookbook.  Also fixed a typo.
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[KPV]: This clever function misses two of my favorite English plurals. First is the only
word in the English language where to form the plural you drop an ''s'': '''necropolis''' -> '''necropoli'''
(a quick search reveals that only some dictionaries recognize that form [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9055156/necropolis]).

The other word is one which has 3 different plural forms: '''octopus'''. The most common, and most accepted plural form is
'''octopuses''', but some hyper-correct word mavens look at the ending and think, ''aha, Latin'' and
make the plural '''octopi'''. The ultra-hyper-correct mavens point out that the word is in fact Greek, and
so argue that the plural should be '''octopodes'''. For more details see [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/octopus].
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[English number reader] - [Things British] - [Arts and crafts of Tcl-Tk programming] - [Natural Languages]
- [Category Human Language]