i18next plural suffix _zero not rendered bug

Fix the i18next _zero plural suffix not rendering

TL;DR

English simply has no zero plural form, so i18next correctly skips your zero key and falls back to other. Check what Intl.PluralRules says for your locale before adding suffixes. For English, put the zero-case copy in _other or handle count 0 as a separate key.

The error

t('items', {count: 0}) renders "0 items" from items_other
expected the items_zero string, which exists in the JSON

Fix it

Step 1: Ask the platform which plural form zero takes

node -e "console.log(new Intl.PluralRules('en').select(0), new Intl.PluralRules('ar').select(0))"

Expected: en prints other, ar prints zero. That tells you which suffix each locale will ever use.

Step 2: List the suffixes your JSON actually defines

node -e "const j=require('./public/locales/en/translation.json'); console.log(Object.keys(j).filter(k=>k.startsWith('items')))"

Expected: You see items, itemsother, itemszero or whatever is really there.

Step 3: Move the zero copy where English will find it

node -e "console.log('for en: put zero-case wording in items_other, or branch on count===0 in code')"

Expected: count 0 now renders the wording you intended.

Step 4: Keep _zero only for locales that have a zero form

node -e "console.log(new Intl.PluralRules('ar').select(0))"

Expected: Arabic keeps its zero form, English stops pretending to have one.

When to use this

• A zero key exists but count 0 renders the other string
• You are adding plural suffixes and want to know which ones a locale supports

When NOT to use this

• You need an exact-count special case, use a separate key or branch in code
• The plural logic itself is wrong, check the count value you pass

Tool and version compatibility

• i18next v21 through v25, JSON v4 plural format
• Intl.PluralRules in all modern browsers and Node 13+

Variant phrasings

_one not used for French zero

Same root cause. French treats 0 as one, so items_one renders for count 0. That is correct CLDR behavior.

Russian few/many forms ignored

You probably defined only one and other. Russian needs one, few, many, and other. Add all four.

Why it happens

i18next v4 resolves plural suffixes through Intl.PluralRules, which implements the CLDR rules per locale. English has only one and other, so _zero can never match in English no matter what your JSON says. Arabic, Latvian, and a few others genuinely have a zero category.

Edge cases

• JSON v3 used key_plural, v4 uses CLDR suffixes, mixing them breaks resolution
• ordinal plurals are a separate lookup, _ordinal suffixes do not mix with cardinal ones
• Some locales change rules by script or region, test with the exact BCP47 tag you ship

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_qojAiv7-clHoR0O9CJZQzA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_qojAiv7-clHoR0O9CJZQzA

Thread query: i18next plural suffix _zero not rendered bug

TL;DR: English simply has no zero plural form, so i18next correctly skips your zero key and falls back to other. Check what Intl.PluralRules says for your locale before adding suffixes. For English, put the zero-case copy in _other or handle count 0 as a separate key.