Vincent 9 | 892 9 Oct 2011 #3you'll probably need to read up about "aspect in verb pairs" to fully understand. Pytać is the imperfective form of the verb and zapytać is the perfective form.
catsoldier 62 | 595 9 Oct 2011 #4Pytać is the imperfective form of the verb and zapytać is the perfective form.More on perfective and imperfective from Polish forums: https://polishforums.com/language/perfective-imperfective-grammar-29677/
Lyzko 9 Oct 2011 #7The "za-" prefix attached to the verb often indicates a more specific purpose to the action, e.g. "prosić" = to ask, request and "zaprosić" = to ask for a reason, i.e. to invite....."pisać" = to write vs. "zapisać" = to inscribe, to title etc..