diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/actions/convert.py b/src/calibre/gui2/actions/convert.py
index fede66a70a..1e64073ffc 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/actions/convert.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/actions/convert.py
@@ -178,8 +178,8 @@ class ConvertAction(InterfaceAction):
 
         if num > 0:
             self.gui.jobs_pointer.start()
-            self.gui.status_bar.show_message(_('Starting conversion of %d book(s)') %
-                num, 2000)
+            self.gui.status_bar.show_message(ngettext(
+                'Starting conversion of the book', 'Starting conversion of {} books', num).format(num), 2000)
 
     def queue_convert_jobs(self, jobs, changed, bad, rows, previous,
             converted_func, extra_job_args=[], rows_are_ids=False):
@@ -282,5 +282,3 @@ class ConvertAction(InterfaceAction):
                 lv.model().current_changed(current, QModelIndex())
         if manually_fine_tune_toc:
             self.gui.iactions['Edit ToC'].do_one(book_id, fmt.upper())
-
-