When managing large crowds or securing events, things can happen suddenly. In Croatian, when you want to express that an event, incident, or change occurred unexpectedly, you can use an impersonal construction with the phrase doći do.
| to occur (impersonal došlo je do) | doći do |
Impersonal Events with "doći do"
The phrase doći do literally means "to come to." However, when used impersonally—typically in the neuter past tense as došlo je do (it came to)—it translates to "occurred," "happened," or "there was a...".
Because the preposition do always takes the Genitive case, the noun that follows must take a Genitive ending:
- panika (panic) → došlo je do panike
- komešanje (commotion) → došlo je do komešanja
- naguravanje (pushing) → došlo je do naguravanja
| Although the incident was harmless, panic occurred quickly. | Iako je incident bio bezazlen, brzo je došlo do panike. |
| A commotion suddenly occurred among the spectators. | Među gledateljima je odjednom došlo do komešanja. |
| Pushing occurred, so we requested an interruption of the match. | Došlo je do naguravanja, tako da smo tražili prekid utakmice. |
Discussing Incidents and Organization
When managing an event, you will often need to discuss minor issues like a misunderstanding (nesporazum), a harmless incident (incident), or even a cancellation (otkazivanje).
| This is just a small misunderstanding in the organization of the festival. | Ovo je samo mali nesporazum u organizaciji festivala. |
| An incident happened, so we expect the cancellation of the concert. | Dogodio se incident, tako da očekujemo otkazivanje koncerta. |
Whether using standard verbs or the impersonal doći do construction, these terms help shift the focus away from who caused the problem to what happened as a result.
| Because of the cancellation of the flight, great panic occurred at the airport. | Zbog otkazivanja leta, došlo je do velike panike na aerodromu. |
| We know that a mistake in the organization occurred. | Znamo da je došlo do pogreške u organizaciji. |