Liza has a Russian exam tomorrow. Sharing knowledge.
It turns out, according to the rules of grammar, a dead man, a drowned man, a zombie, and a deceased are animate, but a corpse and a mummy are inanimate.
It is determined by the accusative case in the plural (see whom? what?), if it coincides with the genitive (no whom? what? dead men, deceased) – then it is animate. If it does not coincide with the genitive but does with the nominative plural (what? corpses, mummies) – then it is inanimate.
And the same goes for snowmen, dolls, matryoshkas, and marionettes. They are all animate (see whom? what? = no whom? what? dolls, matryoshkas, marionettes). Likewise, the king, the ace, the jack, and the trump are animate.
Live and learn.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 