the category of animacy is relevant in russian nominal and adjectival declension. specifically, the accusative has two possible forms in many paradigms, depending on the animacy of the referent. for animate referents (sentient species, some animals, professions and occupations), the accusative form is generally identical to the genitive form (genitive-accusative syncretism). for inanimate referents (simple lifeforms, objects, states, notions), the accusative form is identical to the nominative form (nominative-accusative syncretism). this principle is relevant for masculine singular nouns of the second declension (see below) and adjectives, and for all plural paradigms (with no gender distinction). in the tables below, this behavior is indicated by the abbreviation "n or g" in the row corresponding to the accusative case.