There is a well-known rule that a masculine noun is animate if its Accusative form has a non-zero ending. However, I haven't noticed this information to be mentioned in dictionaries... Maybe I just don't know what each part of a dictionary article means.

But then I thought that maybe the opposite is true (as each definition is de facto an equivalence relation): if the word is animate, than its Accusative requires a non-zero ending. But in this case, how do I decide if a noun is animate or not?

Animate is everything that is alive. This is a common definition. But let's consider two words that are practically synonyms:

- я вижу (**кого? что?**)  труп - null ending => not animate
- я вижу (**кого? что?**)  покойника  -  non-zero ending => animate

Where's the logics? Both corpses are dead and can't be considered animate.

There is a well-known rule that a masculine noun is animate if its Accusative form has a non-zero ending. However, I haven't noticed this information to be mentioned in dictionaries... Maybe I just don't know what each part of a dictionary article means.

But then I thought that maybe the opposite is true (as each definition is de facto an equivalence relation): if the word is animate, than its Accusative requires a non-zero ending. But in this case, how do I decide if a noun is animate or not?

Animate is everything that is alive. This is a common definition. But let's consider two words that are practically synonyms:

• я вижу (кого? что?) труп - null ending => not animate
• я вижу (кого? что?) покойника - non-zero ending => animate

Where's the logics? Both corpses are dead and can't be considered animate.