skoczyli

Skoczyli is the past tense form of the Polish perfective verb skoczyć, meaning "they jumped" or "they leapt." It is used to describe a completed jumping action performed by a group, often in narrative or descriptive contexts.

Grammatical notes: Skoczyli is the masculine or mixed-gender plural form of the past tense. For a feminine plural subject, the form is skoczyły. Skoczyć is a perfective verb; as such it conveys a single, once-off action. Its imperfective counterparts are skakać or skakiwać, whose past tense forms include skakali or skakały, used for repeated or ongoing jumping.

Usage examples: "Skoczyli przez ogrodzenie" means they jumped over the fence, and "Skoczyli do wody" means they jumped into the water. In other contexts, the verb can describe jumping onto or across objects, such as "skoczyli na stołek" (they jumped onto the stool) or "skoczyli przez przeszkodę" (they jumped over an obstacle).

Etymology and related forms: The form derives from skoczyć, related to the noun skok (a jump) and the broader Slavic root meaning jump. Related verbs include przeskoczyć (to jump over), podskoczyć (to jump up a little), and skakać (to jump, often in an iterative sense). These related forms expand the set of meanings around jumping actions in Polish.

Usage notes: In narrative Polish, skoczyli is common when recounting actions of groups or multiple actors. Because it is perfective, the focus is on the completion of the jump rather than its duration, and the context typically specifies the moment of the action.