Breakdown of Došavši na potok, vidio je neki veliki grumen u vodi.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
voda
water
velik
big
vidjeti
to see
u
in, into
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
doći
to come, to arrive
neki
some
potok
stream
grumen
nugget
Questions & Answers about Došavši na potok, vidio je neki veliki grumen u vodi.
How is došavši formed from the verb doći, and why do we use it here?
Došavši is the past verbal adverb, meaning "having come." It's built from the perfective verb doći (to come). To form it, you take the masculine singular past tense form (došao), replace the final -o with -av, and add -ši. It is used here to show that the action of arriving was completely finished before the main action (vidio je - he saw) took place.
Could I just say "Kad je došao..." instead of using došavši?
Yes, absolutely! Saying Kad je došao na potok... (When he came to the stream...) is actually much more common in everyday spoken Croatian. Forms ending in -ši like došavši are mostly used in writing or formal storytelling to smoothly connect two actions performed by the exact same subject.
Why do we use the accusative case for na potok but the locative case for u vodi?
It comes down to motion versus static location. Na potok is in the accusative case because the action involves moving towards a destination ("coming to the stream"). U vodi is in the locative case because it describes where the nugget is statically sitting ("in the water") without any movement towards it.
Why is neki used before veliki grumen?
While Croatian doesn't have indefinite articles like the English "a" or "an," speakers often use neki (literally "some") to introduce a new, non-specific thing to the listener. Here, it acts a bit like saying "a certain big nugget" or just "a big nugget."
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