Automatic change word item to items based on qty in cart?

I have the following in my mini cart:

<div class="items"><span class="num">{{{**ITEM**}}}</span> Items in the Cart</div>

Code (markup):

I used to use in OSCommerce a part which would change the wording - this code is below:

<?php
$cart_item_count = $cart->count_contents();
if($cart_item_count == 1) {
  $itemdesc = 'Item';
} else {
  $itemdesc = 'Items';
};?>

Code (markup):

How can I get this to work with my current code? The part {{{**ITEM**}}} will display numbers correctly, like 0,1,2,3 etc - so I thought somehow I could use that as the base, if item <2 show Item if >1 show items

Thoughts please.

 

You may could use this if the template allows execution of php code

<div class="items"><span class="num">{{{**ITEM**}}}</span> Item<?php echo intval('{{{**ITEM**}}}')>1?'s':''?> in the Cart</div>

PHP:

or if your script is somehow dumb

<?php $nItems = intval('{{{**ITEM**}}}');?>
<div class="items"><span class="num"><?php echo $nItems?></span> Item<?php echo $nItems>1?'s':''?> in the Cart</div>

PHP:

If that fails, just use javascript on a similar way.

 

<div>Item<?php echo {{{*ITEM*}}} ? 's': ''; ?></div>

PHP: