Learn Russian: Мы не можем начинать проект, потому что мало организаторов. - We cannot start the project, because there are few organizers.

Мы не можем начинать проект, потому что мало организаторов.

We cannot start the project, because there are few organizers.

Breakdown of Мы не можем начинать проект, потому что мало организаторов.

Questions & Answers about Мы не можем начинать проект, потому что мало организаторов.

Why does организатор (organizer) end in -ов here?

This is the genitive plural form. Words that express quantity, like мало (few/not enough), много (many/a lot), and сколько (how many), force the following noun into the genitive case. Because организатор is a masculine noun ending in a consonant, its genitive plural adds -ов.

Does мало always translate to "few"?

No, мало can mean "few" (for countable things like organizers) or "little/not much" (for uncountable things like time or water). In Russian, you use the exact same word for both, followed by either a genitive plural noun (for countable things) or a genitive singular noun (for uncountable things).

Why doesn't проект change its ending since it is the direct object being started?

It is actually in the accusative case here because it is the direct object! However, for inanimate (non-living) masculine nouns like проект, the accusative case looks exactly the same as the nominative (dictionary) form.

Why use the imperfective начинать instead of the perfective начать?

You could actually use either here! Using the imperfective начинать emphasizes the process of getting the project underway. If you used the perfective начать, it would focus more on the result of successfully kicking it off. With a negative phrase like не можем (we cannot), the imperfective is very common to express that we can't even get the process going.