=head1 NAME

Lingua::EN::PluralToSingular - change an English plural to a singular

=head1 SYNOPSIS

    use Lingua::EN::PluralToSingular 'to_singular';

    print to_singular ('knives');
    # "knife"

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This Perl module converts words denoting a plural in the English
language into words denoting a singular noun.

=head1 ROUTINES

=head2 to_singular

    my $singular = to_singular ($word);

Convert C<$word> into its singular form. For example,

    to_singular ('cats')

returns 'cat'. If the word is unknown or does not seem to be
plural, C<to_singular> returns the word itself, so

    to_singular ('battlehorn');

returns 'battlehorn'.

=head3 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'.

=head1 STANDALONE SCRIPT

The script F<scripts/singular> provides a quick way to get singular
versions of nouns:

    singular cats dogs geese
    # Prints "cat dog goose".

=head1 BUGS

This module is in early development, and there are many exceptions
which are not included yet.

=head1 AUTHOR

Ben Bullock, <bkb@cpan.org>

=head1 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.


