Clever way to append 's' for plural form in .Net (syntactic sugar)

You can create a custom formatter that does that:

public class PluralFormatProvider : IFormatProvider, ICustomFormatter {

  public object GetFormat(Type formatType) {
    return this;
  }


  public string Format(string format, object arg, IFormatProvider formatProvider) {
    string[] forms = format.Split(';');
    int value = (int)arg;
    int form = value == 1 ? 0 : 1;
    return value.ToString() + " " + forms[form];
  }

}

The Console.WriteLine method has no overload that takes a custom formatter, so you have to use String.Format:

Console.WriteLine(String.Format(
  new PluralFormatProvider(),
  "You have {0:life;lives} left, {1:apple;apples} and {2:eye;eyes}.",
  1, 0, 2)
);

Output:

You have 1 life left, 0 apples and 2 eyes.

Note: This is the bare minimum to make a formatter work, so it doesn't handle any other formats or data types. Ideally it would detect the format and data type, and pass the formatting on to a default formatter if there is some other formatting or data types in the string.

using @Darin Dimitrov solution, I would create an extention for string ....

public static Extentions
{
    public static string Pluralize(this string str,int n)
    {
        if ( n != 1 )
            return PluralizationService.CreateService(new CultureInfo("en-US"))
            .Pluralize(str);
        return str;
    }
}

string.format("you have {0} {1} remaining",liveCount,"life".Pluralize());

You may checkout the PluralizationService class which is part of the .NET 4.0 framework:

string lives = "life";
if (player.Lives != 1)
{
    lives = PluralizationService
        .CreateService(new CultureInfo("en-US"))
        .Pluralize(lives);
}
Console.WriteLine("You have {0} {1} left", player.Lives, lives);

It is worth noting that only English is supported for the moment. Warning, this don't work on the Net Framework 4.0 Client Profile!

You could also write an extension method:

public static string Pluralize(this string value, int count)
{
    if (count == 1)
    {
        return value;
    }
    return PluralizationService
        .CreateService(new CultureInfo("en-US"))
        .Pluralize(value);
}

And then:

Console.WriteLine(
    "You have {0} {1} left", player.Lives, "life".Pluralize(player.Lives)
);

With the newfangled interpolated strings, I just use something like this:

// n is the number of connection attempts
Console.WriteLine($"Needed {n} attempt{(n!=1 ? "s" : "")} to connect...");

EDIT: just ran across this answer again--since I originally posted this, I've been using an extension method that makes it even easier. This example is ordered by peculiarity:

static class Extensions {
    /// <summary>
    /// Pluralize: takes a word, inserts a number in front, and makes the word plural if the number is not exactly 1.
    /// </summary>
    /// <example>"{n.Pluralize("maid")} a-milking</example>
    /// <param name="word">The word to make plural</param>
    /// <param name="number">The number of objects</param>
    /// <param name="pluralSuffix">An optional suffix; "s" is the default.</param>
    /// <param name="singularSuffix">An optional suffix if the count is 1; "" is the default.</param>
    /// <returns>Formatted string: "number word[suffix]", pluralSuffix (default "s") only added if the number is not 1, otherwise singularSuffix (default "") added</returns>
    internal static string Pluralize(this int number, string word, string pluralSuffix = "s", string singularSuffix = "")
    {
        return $@"{number} {word}{(number != 1 ? pluralSuffix : singularSuffix)}";
    }
}

void Main()
{
    int lords = 0;
    int partridges = 1;
    int geese = 1;
    int ladies = 8;
    Console.WriteLine($@"Have {lords.Pluralize("lord")}, {partridges.Pluralize("partridge")}, {ladies.Pluralize("lad", "ies", "y")}, and {geese.Pluralize("", "geese", "goose")}");
    lords = 1;
    partridges = 2;
    geese = 6;
    ladies = 1;
    Console.WriteLine($@"Have {lords.Pluralize("lord")}, {partridges.Pluralize("partridge")}, {ladies.Pluralize("lad", "ies", "y")}, and {geese.Pluralize("", "geese", "goose")}");
}

(formats are the same). The output is:

Have 0 lords, 1 partridge, 8 ladies, and 1 goose
Have 1 lord, 2 partridges, 1 lady, and 6 geese