Optional Plural

[giantantattack.livejournal.com]

Is there a Russian system for dealing with plurals which may or may not occur? For example, in English, on a form someone may write, "I was out of town for ____ day(s)," leaving the option open for the person filling out the form to write in either "one" or "thirty-four" without damaging the grammatical structure of the sentence.

How does one accomplish this in Russian?

Comments

[alex-mashin.livejournal.com]

1. Abbreviation (preferably using common abbreviations or acronyms like "м" or "шт."): "Меня не было в городе __ дн."


2. Restructuring of the sentence: "Число дней, когда меня не было в городе: __"


3. Commas and parentheses: "Меня не было в городе __ дней(день,дня)", "В классе __ ученик(-а, -ов)"


4. Doing nothing: "Меня не было в городе __ дней"

[giantantattack.livejournal.com]

Спасибо.

[jedermann.livejournal.com]

What we (Russians) usually do is number 4.