Animacy's a grammatical and/or semantic category of nouns based on how sentient or alive the referent of the noun's. Animacy can have various effects on the grammar of a language, such as word order, case endings, or the form a verb takes when it's associated with that noun. In languages which demonstrate animacy, some have simple systems where nouns are either animate (for example people, animals) or inanimate (for example buildings, trees, abstract ideas), whereas others have complex hierarch… (More on Animacy)