This is the 12281st most frequent Russian word.
испугать
To scare or frighten.
Here, 'испугал' is used to express the action of causing fear or alarm in someone, showing its straightforward application to indicate one person scaring another.
Не надо было так внезапно подходить — ты испугал его.
You shouldn't have approached so suddenly — you scared him.
In this sentence, 'испугалась' is reflexive, describing the subject experiencing fear or alarm themselves, indicating the verb can be used reflexively to represent a state of being scared.
Она испугалась грома, который внезапно прогремел.
She got scared of the thunder that suddenly roared.
The phrase 'не испугались' uses the verb in its negative reflexive form to convey the potential of them becoming scared, demonstrating its use in hypothetical contexts.