1

In the context of knowledge of something, the phrase "to catch up" is apparently being used in both active and passive ways. For example:

I have to catch up on the latest news.

Can you catch me up on the latest news?

To me, this seems not logical if I think about catching up requiring some effort on the part of the person that is not up to date. Instead, I would prefer

Can you help me catch up on the latest news.

To me, the usage gets more confusing if catching up refers to physical distance, for example, a cyclist who wants to catch up with another. For me,

Rider A was caught up by rider B

would mean that A was in front but than B caught up with him, rather than B helped A catch up with other riders in front.

My question is:

What is the meaning of the cycling example for native speakers?

PS: updated in response to comments. It seems that I was not actually talking about "passive voice". Apologies to @TRomano for the changes after their answer.

Improve this question
8
  • 1
    I think, some speakers are more likely to say that someone was brought up to speed when referring to news/gossip/latest developments
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Feb 3, 2019 at 14:28
  • Can you refine the question you are asking.
    – lbf
    Commented Feb 3, 2019 at 15:27
  • “He was caught up by her [on the latest news]” is not a meaningful sentence to me. If I hadn’t had the context of the immediately preceding example, I wouldn’t have had the faintest idea what it was supposed to mean. Can you clarify where you’ve come across this usage? I’m guessing it’s a dialectal feature of sorts; at least I’ve never heard or seen it before.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Feb 3, 2019 at 16:45
  • @JanusBahsJacquet You might be right. I changed the example.
    – painfulenglish
    Commented Feb 3, 2019 at 16:53
  • The passive equivalent of "she earned her promotion" would be " "her promotion was earned by her". The reason is that, in reality, she did the earning and the payment was what was earned, changing from the active to the passive voice does not change the relationship between the two parties. The same thing happens when we say "John visited Susan" or "Susan was visited by John". Whichever way we say it it was still John's finger on Susan's doorbell.
    – BoldBen
    Commented Feb 3, 2019 at 16:58

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

He was caught up to by her.†

He had been ahead of her but she narrowed the distance between them and managed to come "alongside" him (literally or figuratively). The verb catch up in its meaning where it does not take a direct object, and used here in the passive voice.

She caught up to him.

Same underlying meaning as above, verb not taking a direct object, here in the active voice.

He was caught up by her.

Here catch up is used in its transitive meaning and in the passive voice: she brought him "up to speed" on the matter. She gave him the information he lacked. She tutored him or briefed him.

†Compare:

The chair was sat down on (by someone)

Having got off to a good start he was briefly in the lead but was soon caught up to by the other runners.

Do you see how the preposition is carried over when the verb not taking a direct object is used in a passive construction?

Someone sat down on the chair.

The chair was sat down on by someone.

The baby played with the rattle.

The rattle was played with by the baby.

I suppose it's possible to see the verbs there as sit (down) on and play with and then go on to assert that they do take a direct object. But however you want to analyze it, the preposition comes along for the ride in passive constructions using verbs like this.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .