How do you translate comments_number function text in a theme?

Question

If I'm just echoing regular text, I do this:

<?php _e('This post is closed to new comments.','my-theme') ?>

But how would I translate the text in comments_number(); so that the "Comments" text can be translated? Like this:

<?php comments_number( 'Comments (0)', 'Comments (1)', 'Comments (%)' ); ?>

Answer 1

You have to make these strings translatable by using __() function:

comments_number( __('Comments (0)'), __('Comments (1)'), __('Comments (%)') );

If you want to use the custom textdomain, e.g. 'test':

comments_number( __('Comments (0)', 'test'), __('Comments (1)', 'test'), __('Comments (%)', 'test') );

For more information see:

• __()
• Theme internationalization
• Very good article by Samuel Wood a.k.a. Otto: Internationalization: You’re probably doing it wrong.

Answer 2

The comments_number function is calling get_comments_number_text function: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_comments_number_text/

In that function there are your strings to translate

function get_comments_number_text( $zero = false, $one = false, $more = false ) {
    $number = get_comments_number();

    if ( $number > 1 ) {
        if ( false === $more ) {
            /* translators: %s: number of comments */
            $output = sprintf( _n( '%s Comment', '%s Comments', $number ), number_format_i18n( $number ) );
        } else {
            // % Comments
            $output = str_replace( '%', number_format_i18n( $number ), $more );
        }
    } elseif ( $number == 0 ) {
        $output = ( false === $zero ) ? __( 'No Comments' ) : $zero;
    } else { // must be one
        $output = ( false === $one ) ? __( '1 Comment' ) : $one;
    }
    /**
     * Filter the comments count for display.
     *
     * @since 1.5.0
     *
     * @see _n()
     *
     * @param string $output A translatable string formatted based on whether the count
     *                       is equal to 0, 1, or 1+.
     * @param int    $number The number of post comments.
     */
    return apply_filters( 'comments_number', $output, $number );
}