Python - Generating the plural noun of a singular noun

Question

How could I use NLTK module to write both the noun's singular and plural form, or tell it not to differentiate between singular and plural when searching a txt file for a word? Can I use NLTK to make the program case insensitive?

Answer 1

You can do this by using pattern.en, not too sure about NLTK

>>> from pattern.en import pluralize, singularize
>>>  
>>> print pluralize('child') #children
>>> print singularize('wolves') #wolf

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Answer 2

It might be a bit late to answer but just in case someone is still looking for something similar:

There's inflect (also available in github) which support python 2.x and 3.x. You can find the singular or plural form of a given word:

import inflect
p = inflect.engine()

words = "cat dog child goose pants"
print([p.plural(word) for word in words.split(' ')])
# ['cats', 'dogs', 'children', 'geese', 'pant']

Is worth noticing that p.plural of a plural will give you the singular form. In addition, you can provide a POS (Part Of Speech) tag or to provide a number and the lib determines if it needs to be plural or singular:

p.plural('cat', 4)   # cats
p.plural('cat', 1)   # cat
# but also...
p.plural('cat', 0)   # cats