How to null a translation in gettext system?

Question

Suppose a simple phrase "In" in English needs to be interpreted as "" - empty string in Russian.

Is is possible to specify that in the .po file?

What normally happens if you set msgstr "" - you'll get the untranslated key, but I want to get nothing in that specific case.

Here is a use case: I have underneath a giant search bar a set of buttons to select questions (for a Q&A site) from particular scopes - like so:

(in English)

In: [all] [unanswered] [my own]

(in Russian I want)

[все] [без ответов] [мои]

It just sounds more natural. Yes I can leave out In for english, but I don't want to and I do not want to put button (things in [] are buttons) html into the 'po' file.

Thanks!

Answer 1

U+200B is one character long, but does not take up any space. Do note that the fact that it's completely invisible will eventually trip someone up, so you might be better off with U+200A or U+2009, or even an actual space.