How to format a timedelta like "1 hour ago" in python so that it is translatable

Question

I want to format a python timedelta object as "x minutes/hours/weeks/month/years ago".

I know there are some similar questions, like:

• How to display "x days ago" type time using Humanize in Django template?
• From: "1 hour ago", To: timedelta + accuracy
• User-friendly time format in Python?

However, I did not find an answer for my case, because

• I do not use django
• I need to format a timedelta to a string, not the other way around
• The solution should work in as many languages as possible, not just English

Here is my current code (excerpt, sorry):

delta = babel.dates.format_timedelta(now - dt, format=format,          
                                     locale=locale)                       
if now > dt:                                                           
    return _(u"%(timedelta)s ago") % {'timedelta': delta}              
else:                                                                  
    return _(u"in %(timedelta)s") % {'timedelta': delta} 

For the babel function, see http://babel.pocoo.org/docs/dates/#time-delta-formatting

Now this works fine in English. In German, however, it fails: The above code would translate "2 years ago" to "vor 2 Jahre" instead of "vor 2 Jahren".

I would also be happy with a solution that does not use the "... ago" phrasing. As long as it is similar and translatable I can accept it.

Answer 1

According to documentation I found here, you should add the add_direction=True parameter to your format_timedelta call.