zaskoczyli

Zaskoczyli is the third-person masculine plural past tense form of the Polish verb zaskoczyć, meaning to surprise or to catch off guard. It is used to describe a completed action in which a group of people (usually masculine or mixed gender) caused surprise for someone or something.

Etymology and aspect: zaskoczyć is a perfective verb formed with the prefix z- added to skoczyć (to jump). The figurative meaning arises from the idea of suddenly jumping out or acting unexpectedly to surprise someone. As a perfective verb, zaskoczyć denotes a single, completed event; its imperfective equivalents would be forms like zaskakiwać (to be surprising regularly or repeatedly) or zaskakiwać/zaskakiwać.

Grammatical notes and usage: zaskoczyli marks masculine personal past tense for a plural subject. The feminine plural counterpart is zaskoczyły, and the non-masculine plural forms align with the standard Polish past-tense agreement rules. Common usage includes sentences like “Zaskoczyli mnie prezentem” (They surprised me with a gift) or “Oni zaskoczyli swoich gości niespodziewanym występem” (They surprised their guests with an unexpected performance). When used with a direct object, the thing causing the surprise is typically in the instrumental case (czymś) in constructions meaning “surprised me with/by something.”

Related forms: zaskoczyć has present/future forms in the standard Polish system (the future of a perfective verb is formed from the verb stem with appropriate endings). The imperfective counterpart is zaskakiwać.

See also: zaskoczenie, zaskoczyć (to surprise), skoczyć (to jump).