Thread: Numerals: Animacy

I'm about to start a blog given the number of threads that I have started over here so far.

Anyway, it's an interesting topic nonetheless.

According to my grammar book (Wade, 2011), compound numerals ending in 2/3/4 do not concur with the animacy rule:
Она приняла на курс/лекцию 23 студента.

Numerals around 5-999 do not concur with this role either. (according to the book).

However, I do see some animacy whenever I fool around the RuNet.
"В Киргизии задержали 23 участников ..." Source: AiF

I myself would have written "...были задержаны ...." to avoid such questions.

Which one is true? DO I have to care about animacy when we talk about compound numerals etc? Or is it one of the less stringent rules?
It's the stuff that not really devoted much attention in grammar books (aside from "I see 1 boy/guy ....")

Which is wrong? Aif or my book? Or do both work?

AiF is wrong. "23 студента", and yes "были задержаны" (even without "были") sounds much better.

Правильно 23 участника, 3 участника. Если говорится трое, тогда трое участников.

Originally Posted by Lampada

Правильно 23 участника, 3 участника. Если говорится трое, тогда трое участников.

«Задержали двадцать три участника», but «задержали трёх участников». The rules are different for single-word and multi-word numerals. Imho.