Thread: Valda - разные вопросы по глаголам

Yep, it is Accusative. For some reason робот in Russian is mostly treated as grammatically animate.

Originally Posted by it-ogo

Yep, it is Accusative. For some reason робот in Russian is mostly treated as grammatically animate.

Yes, we have some strange rules for the grammatical animacy.
"Покойник" (the deceased) and "мертвец" (dead man) are animate: Он увидел покойника. Он увидел мертвеца. But "труп" (corpse) is inanimate: Он увидел труп.
"Микроб" (microbe) is usually animate: Мыло убивает микробов. "Бактерия" (bacterium) and "вирус" (virus) are usually inanimate: Мыло убивает бактерии. Мыло убивает вирусы.

And yes, "робот" is animate. I think that is because robots first appeared in science fiction, and they were described as human-like creations.