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Kako se dogodio odron, penjači su stali.

Kako se dogodio odron, penjači su stali.
As a rockfall happened, the climbers stopped.
From Lesson 504:Causal conjunctions (kako)·Croatian

Questions & Answers about Kako se dogodio odron, penjači su stali.

Why does kako mean "as" instead of "how" in this sentence?
When placed at the very beginning of a sentence, kako often acts as a causal conjunction meaning "as" or "since". It sets up the background reason for the main event, much like budući da (since).
Why is the enclitic se placed directly after kako?
Enclitics like the reflexive pronoun se must go in the second position of their clause. Here, the conjunction kako occupies the first position, so se must immediately follow it, separating it from the main verb dogodio.
Why is the subject odron placed after the verb se dogodio instead of before it?
While odron se dogodio is grammatically correct, placing the verb before the subject is very common in Croatian when introducing a sudden event or natural phenomenon. It puts the conversational focus on the occurrence itself rather than on the rockfall as an active agent.
I know stati can mean "to stand". Why does it translate to "stopped" here?
The perfective verb stati has multiple meanings depending on the context. It can mean "to stand up" or "to step", but it is also the standard verb for "to stop" moving or to halt an action. In the context of moving climbers, su stali simply means they halted.

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