NAME
Lingua::EN::PluralToSingular - change an English plural to a singular
SYNOPSIS
use Lingua::EN::PluralToSingular 'to_singular';
print to_singular ('knives');
# "knife"DESCRIPTION
This Perl module converts words denoting a plural in the English language into words denoting a singular noun.
ROUTINES
to_singular
my $singular = to_singular ($word);Convert $word into its singular form. For example,
to_singular ('cats')returns 'cat'. If the word is unknown or does not seem to be plural, to_singular returns the word itself, so
to_singular ('battlehorn');returns 'battlehorn'.
Limitations
It assumes its input is a noun. For example, "lives" may be the plural of "life", or the verb "live", as in "he lives". The routine assumes a noun and converts to "life".
It does not deal with capitalized words. If the input word may be capitalized, or if its initial letter may be capitalized, the user must preprocess it to put it into the normal case. So, for example,
to_singular ('FLIES');returns 'FLIES' and
to_singular ('Wolves');returns 'Wolve'.
STANDALONE SCRIPT
The script scripts/singular provides a quick way to get singular versions of nouns:
singular cats dogs geese
# Prints "cat dog goose".BUGS
This module is in early development, and there are many exceptions which are not included yet.
AUTHOR
Ben Bullock, <bkb@cpan.org>
COPYRIGHT & LICENCE
This package and associated files are copyright (C) 2012-2013 Ben Bullock.
You can use, copy, modify and redistribute this package and associated files under the Perl Artistic Licence or the GNU General Public Licence.