Breakdown of Мы знаем большинство успешных проектов.
мы
we
знать
to know
проект
the project
большинство
majority
Questions & Answers about Мы знаем большинство успешных проектов.
Why are успешных проектов in the genitive case instead of the accusative?
The verb знаем (we know) acts directly on the word большинство (majority), making that word the direct object. The projects just answer the question "majority of what?". In Russian, words expressing quantity like большинство, много (a lot), or numbers are followed by the genitive case to show this "of" relationship.
Why does the adjective успешных end in -ых?
This is the genitive plural ending for adjectives. The dictionary form is успешный (successful). For adjectives with a hard stem (meaning the letter before the ending isn't a special spelling-rule consonant like к, г, х, ш, щ, ж, or ч that demands -и-), the genitive plural ending is -ых.
How do we form the genitive plural for the noun проектов?
The dictionary form is проект, which is a masculine noun ending in a hard consonant. To form the genitive plural for most masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant, you simply add the ending -ов.
Since большинство is the direct object of the verb, shouldn't it change its ending for the accusative case?
It is in the accusative case! However, большинство is a neuter noun (it ends in -о). Neuter nouns do not change their form in the accusative case, so it looks exactly the same as its dictionary form.