import re


def _resolve_member_type(membership_col_name: str) -> str:
    """
    An attempt to, given plural form like 'samples', 'families', return its singular form for member type.
    :param membership_col_name:
    :return: 'samples' -> 'sample', 'families' -> 'family'
    """
    # best I could do here; if we see more exotic names, consider using a lib
    return re.sub("ies$", "y", re.sub("s$", "", membership_col_name))