eli5 why do we use “s” at the end of words with 0 quantity?

Question

0 elephants

1 elephant

2 elephants

100 elephants

I understand the “s” for quantities larger than 1 because it’s plural (more than 1) — but why for 0, which is less than 1? Why does it just “feel more comfortable” (including for me)? Is there a logical reason behind it?

In: 5848

Answer 1

Because you are counting how many *entities* are in your set/group. Entities are always considered plural when counting.

Value “one” (1) is a special exception, the only exception indeed. Better question could be “why we do not use s for everything while counting?” and the answer will be something like “because one (1) is the measurement unit of set/groups and a single unit is indeed singular, multiple units will be plural” (also, the word itself ‘unit’ follow that rule as well)