The phrasal verb to catch up has several related meanings. When you are behindin some way, e.g. a person is ahead of you in a race, or another company is more advanced than yours, or you do not know the latest news or gossip, then if you catch up, you reach the same level or position.
If a person is ahead of you, then you can catch up by walking or running faster than them.
If another company is more advanced, then you could catch up by investing more money in research and development.
If you are behind on news or gossip, then you can catch up by reading a newspaper or by discussing recent events with a friend.
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Accent: North America
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Why out coffee ? It good to .
About the sentence
…Why don’t we go out for coffee next week?…
Why don’t we…? is a good way to make a suggestion to someone, e.g. Why don’t we get a takeaway tonight?
Accent: Scotland
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I work late I'm afraid. I've emails to .
About the sentence
…I’m afraid…
The phrase I’m afraid is often used when giving bad news. e.g. I’m afraid I broke your favourite mug earlier on – I’m really sorry.
Accent: North America
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a lesson, vital that you in your .
About the sentence
…it’s vital…
Vital is an extreme adjective which means very important. e.g. It’s absolutely vital that you tell someone your plans before going off camping alone.
Think of a time recently when you were behind on something (e.g. work, revision, preparations for something). Why were you behind, and how did you catch up on it?
Tell me about the last time you met a friend to catch up. What did you talk about?
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Hi Chris! 🙂 I’m sure everybody can tell us planty different stories when we need to “run” faster to catch up . As for me the latest one was when i had changed my job.It was a beautiful summer time. Nevetheless I had to sleep less and read more a lot of special books. Thus l quicly cought up on that new level:)
Hi Lena! Thanks for your post, I always enjoy reading your examples 🙂 What a shame you missed out on the good weather, but well done for working hard. Careful with your spelling at the end: “I quickly caught up”. When you catch up on/with something, you are talking about something that you are behind on. In your example, it sounds a little strange to say you were behind ‘a new level’. So I would say that you caught up with your new colleagues, or you caught up on your reading. Because of this, you reached the level you needed… Read more »
Marisela
6 years ago
The most recent time I was behind on something was on my credit card payments. I should have made my last payment before the fifteenth of March. But I got my payment dates mixed up. So the day came and I didn’t pay in time. Hopefully, I got a message from the bank for a reminder so I could catch up on my payments. The last time I could catch up with a friend was the very last weekend. It was quite a surprise because we haven’t seen each other for about 17 years. He’s from Venezuela and we caught… Read more »
Sounds like you have an understanding bank Marisela! In this country you would probably have to pay a fine.
Instead of ‘hopefully’, I would say ‘luckily’, ‘fortunately’ or ‘thankfully’.
In your second example, it should be: “It was quite a surprise because we hadn’t seen each other for 17 years”. You are looking further back from a past action/event (“it was a surprise”), so you need the past perfect for the earlier action (“we hadn’t seen each other”). I’m very glad your friend is OK and is able to start a new life.
Well done!
Sveta Tsalkovska
6 years ago
Hi Chris! What comes to my mind is that I usually catch up news in the morning as I work remotely morning shift, so in the evening there is lots of news in our corporate chat which I need to catch up next day. And I love doing it with a cup of coffee 🙂 And also I was ill the last week so these last days after my recovery I catched up while meeting my friends. P.S. I feel there mistakes so thank you in advance for any corrections
Hi Sveta! How are you? One thing you need to be careful with is ‘catch up’ vs ‘catch up with/on sth’. When it is clear from the context and you don’t need to specify the object, you can just use ‘to catch up’. e.g. “I am very behind with my work, so I need to spend the weekend catching up”. However, when you include the object, you need to use ‘to catch up on/with sth’ e.g. “I can’t see you this weekend – I’m catching up on work”. In your examples, you include the object, so you need to say… Read more »
AlineS
6 years ago
Last week, I had many texts to read, but I hadn’t have time enough to stop and read them. To catch up on my reading, I read at the bus stop, on the shaking bus and every place where I could do this. It’s not the best way to absorve an article’s content, but I tried. The last time I caught up with a friend was a couple of weeks ago. She had changed her college course, so we talked about her new course and our studies. For sure there are mistakes about the tenses used. Present/past perfect tenses are… Read more »
In your first example, you are talking about a specific, finished period in the past, so you just need to use past simple. So when you say “I hadn’t have”, this should be “I didn’t have”. You don’t need past perfect because the 2 actions (not having enough time, and reading on the bus) happen in the same period (last week, as I understand it).
Hi Chris! 🙂
I’m sure everybody can tell us planty different stories when we need to “run” faster to catch up . As for me the latest one was when i had changed my job.It was a beautiful summer time. Nevetheless I had to sleep less and read more a lot of special books. Thus l quicly cought up on that new level:)
plenty of
Hi Lena! Thanks for your post, I always enjoy reading your examples 🙂 What a shame you missed out on the good weather, but well done for working hard. Careful with your spelling at the end: “I quickly caught up”. When you catch up on/with something, you are talking about something that you are behind on. In your example, it sounds a little strange to say you were behind ‘a new level’. So I would say that you caught up with your new colleagues, or you caught up on your reading. Because of this, you reached the level you needed… Read more »
The most recent time I was behind on something was on my credit card payments. I should have made my last payment before the fifteenth of March. But I got my payment dates mixed up. So the day came and I didn’t pay in time. Hopefully, I got a message from the bank for a reminder so I could catch up on my payments. The last time I could catch up with a friend was the very last weekend. It was quite a surprise because we haven’t seen each other for about 17 years. He’s from Venezuela and we caught… Read more »
Haha, how often does she miss the bus?
Careful with your spelling: daughter
And also the past tense of the verb ‘run’: My daughter ran again
Well done!
Sounds like you have an understanding bank Marisela! In this country you would probably have to pay a fine.
Instead of ‘hopefully’, I would say ‘luckily’, ‘fortunately’ or ‘thankfully’.
In your second example, it should be: “It was quite a surprise because we hadn’t seen each other for 17 years”. You are looking further back from a past action/event (“it was a surprise”), so you need the past perfect for the earlier action (“we hadn’t seen each other”). I’m very glad your friend is OK and is able to start a new life.
Well done!
Hi Chris! What comes to my mind is that I usually catch up news in the morning as I work remotely morning shift, so in the evening there is lots of news in our corporate chat which I need to catch up next day. And I love doing it with a cup of coffee 🙂
And also I was ill the last week so these last days after my recovery I catched up while meeting my friends.
P.S. I feel there mistakes so thank you in advance for any corrections
Hi Sveta! How are you? One thing you need to be careful with is ‘catch up’ vs ‘catch up with/on sth’. When it is clear from the context and you don’t need to specify the object, you can just use ‘to catch up’. e.g. “I am very behind with my work, so I need to spend the weekend catching up”. However, when you include the object, you need to use ‘to catch up on/with sth’ e.g. “I can’t see you this weekend – I’m catching up on work”. In your examples, you include the object, so you need to say… Read more »
Last week, I had many texts to read, but I hadn’t have time enough to stop and read them. To catch up on my reading, I read at the bus stop, on the shaking bus and every place where I could do this. It’s not the best way to absorve an article’s content, but I tried. The last time I caught up with a friend was a couple of weeks ago. She had changed her college course, so we talked about her new course and our studies. For sure there are mistakes about the tenses used. Present/past perfect tenses are… Read more »
Great writing Aline, well done.
In your first example, you are talking about a specific, finished period in the past, so you just need to use past simple. So when you say “I hadn’t have”, this should be “I didn’t have”. You don’t need past perfect because the 2 actions (not having enough time, and reading on the bus) happen in the same period (last week, as I understand it).
Also, careful with the spelling of ‘absorb’.
Now I see that besides using the wrong verb tense, I used the wrong structure (Hadn’t have). Thank you very much! 🙂
You’re welcome Aline 🙂