Iz stana je izlazio gust dim, pa su susjedi odmah zvali pomoć.

Because iz means out of / from inside, and after iz, Croatian uses the genitive case.

• stan = apartment, flat
• iz stana = out of the apartment / from the apartment

So stana is the genitive singular form of stan.

Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order. Starting with Iz stana puts the location/source first and sounds very natural.

So:

• Iz stana je izlazio gust dim
• literally: Out of the apartment was coming thick smoke

In English, we would usually say Thick smoke was coming out of the apartment, but Croatian often front-loads details like place, source, or time.

This is the past tense of izlaziti, which is an imperfective verb meaning to be going out / to be coming out.

• je = the auxiliary is/has used to form the past tense
• izlazio = masculine singular past participle of izlaziti

Together, je izlazio means something like:

• was coming out
• was going out
• kept coming out

Here it suggests an ongoing scene: the smoke was pouring out, not just a single completed action.

This is a very common aspect question.

• izlaziti = imperfective
• izaći = perfective

In this sentence, izlazio is used because the focus is on the process or ongoing situation: smoke was coming out of the apartment.

If you used izašao, it would sound more like a single completed event:

• Iz stana je izašao gust dim = Thick smoke came out of the apartment

That is possible in some contexts, but izlazio better matches the idea of an unfolding emergency scene.

Because adjectives in Croatian must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

• dim is masculine singular nominative
• so gust must also be masculine singular nominative

This phrase means thick smoke or dense smoke.

Some useful forms of gust:

• masculine: gust
• feminine: gusta
• neuter: gusto

Croatian past tense is formed with:

• the auxiliary biti in the present tense
• plus the past participle

So the basic structure is:

• je izlazio = was coming out

Also, Croatian has special placement rules for short unstressed words called clitics, such as je and su. These usually appear near the beginning of the clause, often in the second position.

That is why you get:

• Iz stana je izlazio gust dim

and not normally:

• Iz stana izlazio je gust dim

The second version is not impossible in poetry or marked style, but the first is the normal neutral order.

Here pa means something like:

• so
• and so
• therefore
• then

It connects the two parts of the sentence:

• smoke was coming out of the apartment,
• so the neighbors immediately called for help.

In everyday Croatian, pa is extremely common and can have several meanings depending on context, but here it expresses a consequence.

This part contains the subject and the past tense verb:

• susjedi = neighbors
• su zvali = called
• pomoć = help
• odmah = immediately

Again, su is a clitic, so it tends to come early in the clause:

• pa su susjedi odmah zvali pomoć

That is a normal and natural order in Croatian.

Because susjedi is the nominative plural, used for the subject of the sentence.

• singular: susjed = neighbor
• plural nominative: susjedi = neighbors

If it were an object, you might see a different case form, but here they are the people doing the action.

Because the verb zvati can take a direct object in the accusative case.

• zvati pomoć = to call help / to call for help

The noun pomoć here is in the accusative, although its form looks the same as the nominative because some feminine nouns have identical nominative and accusative singular forms.

You may also hear:

• pozvati pomoć = to call for help / summon help

Both are possible, though pozvati often sounds a bit more like a completed act of summoning.

This is another aspect difference.

• zvati = imperfective
• pozvati = perfective

zvali pomoć can suggest the action in progress or simply describe what they did in the situation, without strongly emphasizing completion.

pozvali pomoć would emphasize that they successfully made the call / summoned help as a completed event.

In a past narrative like this, both can work, but they create slightly different shades of meaning.

Odmah means immediately / right away.

It tells you how quickly the neighbors reacted:

• pa su susjedi odmah zvali pomoć = so the neighbors immediately called for help

Croatian often places adverbs like odmah before the main verb, but word order can vary.

Because Croatian has no articles.

So:

• stan can mean an apartment or the apartment
• susjedi can mean neighbors or the neighbors
• pomoć can mean help or the help, depending on context

The listener understands the intended meaning from the situation, context, and word order.

Not very naturally. A close word-for-word version would be:

• Out of the apartment was coming thick smoke, so the neighbors immediately called help.

That is understandable, but natural English would usually be:

• Thick smoke was coming out of the apartment, so the neighbors immediately called for help.

This is a good example of how Croatian and English often organize the same information differently.