Breakdown of Кроме змей, она боится огромных пауков.
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
огромный
huge
бояться
to be afraid
кроме
except
Questions & Answers about Кроме змей, она боится огромных пауков.
Is огромных пауков in the Accusative or Genitive case here? For animate nouns, they look identical.
It is Genitive! The verb бояться (to fear / be afraid of) strictly requires the Genitive case for the object of fear. Even though the Accusative plural for animate masculine nouns like паук (spider) is also пауков, the grammatical rule for verbs of fear dictates that this is the Genitive case.
Why does боится have the reflexive -ся suffix if she is fearing something else, rather than doing an action to herself?
Some Russian verbs permanently have the -ся or -сь suffix, even when they don't describe a literal reflexive action (like улыбаться to smile, or бояться to fear). A crucial rule to remember: verbs ending in -ся can almost never take a direct object in the Accusative case. This is exactly why verbs like бояться force you to use the Genitive case instead!
What triggers the case for змей in the first part of the sentence?
The preposition кроме (besides / except) always demands the Genitive case. Therefore, we have to use the Genitive plural form of змея (snake), which is змей.
How exactly do we form the Genitive plural змей from the feminine noun змея? It almost looks masculine here.