Breakdown of Директор руководит большим коллективом.
большой
big
директор
director
руководить
to lead
коллектив
team (collective, staff)
Questions & Answers about Директор руководит большим коллективом.
Why is 'a large team' in the Instrumental case (большим коллективом) here?
The verb руководить (to manage, to direct) requires its object to be in the Instrumental case. Even though in English we 'manage a team' with a direct object, in Russian you essentially 'direct by means of a team'. This is a common pattern for verbs involving management or control, like управлять (to manage) and командовать (to command).
Why does the adjective большим end in -им instead of the standard masculine Instrumental ending -ым?
This is a great place for a quick refresher on the 7-letter spelling rule. You cannot write the letter ы after the consonant ш (or after г, к, х, ж, ч, щ). Because of this rule, the standard masculine Instrumental ending -ым must change to -им.
The infinitive is руководить. Why is the 'he/she' form руководит and not руководет?
Руководить belongs to the second conjugation (often called Type 2) of verbs, which is indicated by the -ить ending in the infinitive. For these verbs, the 'he/she' (3rd person singular) ending is always -ит, not -ет.
Could I use the word командой instead of коллективом to mean 'team'?