Breakdown of Проект был сложным, но менеджер всё-таки хотел, чтобы команда управляла новой компанией.
новый
new
хотеть
to want
быть
to be
но
but
проект
the project
менеджер
manager
сложный
difficult, complex
компания
company
чтобы
in order to
команда
team
управлять
to manage (control, direct)
всё-таки
still / nevertheless
Questions & Answers about Проект был сложным, но менеджер всё-таки хотел, чтобы команда управляла новой компанией.
Why is всё-таки placed right before хотел, and could we use всё же here instead?
In this sentence, всё-таки (nevertheless / all the same) emphasizes the manager's persistence despite the difficulty. It typically goes immediately before the word it emphasizes, which is the verb хотел. You could absolutely substitute всё же here with the exact same meaning, though всё-таки is slightly more common in everyday speech.
Why is сложным in the instrumental case rather than the nominative (сложный)?
When describing a state or characteristic in the past tense with был, Russian strongly prefers the instrumental case (сложным). The nominative is sometimes used, but the instrumental is the most natural choice to describe how the project was during that specific period.
Why is the verb управляла in the past tense when the English translation says to manage?
When expressing a desire for someone else to do something, Russian requires the conjunction чтобы followed by a verb in the past tense. Even though English uses an infinitive (to manage), the structure хотел, чтобы strictly requires the past tense form управляла.
Why is the new company translated as новой компанией in the instrumental case?
The verb управлять (to manage, direct, or control) always requires its object to be in the instrumental case. Because of this rule, the object of the managing takes the instrumental новой компанией rather than the accusative case you might normally expect.
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