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

in English, 0 is plural – in other languages 0 is not plural

In arabic (and related) languages there is a 1s, 2s, and more form that re-occurs at 1,2,.. and 11,12,…, and 21,22,… and 31, 32 … and so forth

Languages are weird

this talks about some of it:

[https://lingohub.com/blog/2019/02/pluralization](https://lingohub.com/blog/2019/02/pluralization)

The Oxford dictioanaries also refer to things as “countable” verses not – countable

[https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/a1-a2-grammar/countable-and-uncountable-nouns-1](https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/a1-a2-grammar/countable-and-uncountable-nouns-1)