#3303 %nation% in translatable strings might lead to wrong grammar in translations

[Wuzzy]

(Not sure if this is a bug report or improvement request. It is kinda both.)

Version: 0.13.0+dev, commit 6f399d438f4ae9aaa515aaadc8437afcab9868d2.

In many strings, there is a bare "%nation%" placeholder without a "{{tag:".
If I see it correctly, this will replace the placeholder with the default value for the nation, like "Danish". If I understand this correctly, this is more like a fallback or "adjective" form.

But I noticed the bare %nation% is often used in place when actually "{{tag:people|%nation%}}" would have been more fitting because the word was meant to refer to the people of that nation (a demonym).

Bad news, your Excellency, the %nation% have declared war on us!

%nation% will be replaced with the 'default' value of the nation tag, not the 'people' one. In English, this makes no visible difference ("the Danish have declared war on us!"), as it is the same most of the time. But in other languages, the "people" word differs from the "default" word.

So in German, this has lead to weird sentences like "Die Dänisch erklärten uns den Krieg!" ("Dänisch" is the default word) while it should be "Die Dänen erklären uns den Krieg!". ("Dänen" is the demonym). This mistake happend in the German translation a LOT and it took a while to fix it.

In German, I managed to fix this manually by replacing "%nation%" with "{{tag:people|%nation%}}" in the translation. I tested it and it actually worked. But it's still confusing that translators have to work around this. Other translators will likely struggle as well. Basically, any language in which the "people" word and the "default" word is translated differently, is affected, unless they did the same workaround as me. This is not good. :D

Therefore, I suggest to review all strings that include a bare "%nation%", "%enemyNation%" (that is, without a tag), or similar nation placeholder when it is supposed to be a demonym, and replace it with "{{tag:people|%nation%}}", where applicable. This will hopefully help reducing mistakes in the translation and it also clarifies the context.

Note that there are still a few strings where a bare "%nation%" actually does make sense, like when it is used as a general adjective. Example:

You conquer the %nation% colony of %colony%.

Here, "%nation% really is meant as a a general adjective, to describe the noun "colony". It is not meant as a demonym. So this string is fine and needs no fixing.