Jake walked slowly so as to let his girlfriend catch up to/with him.

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Angliholic

#449525 Tue, 04 Dec 07 01:27 PM

Jake walked slowly so as to let his girlfriend catch up to/with him.

Do both to and with fit in the above context and mean about the same? Thanks.

Angliholic

Joined on Wed, Feb 14 2007

SomewhereinFormosa

Veteran Member (5,543)

Without true love, life is meaningless and worthless since our physical world is nothing but a dream. ~~Angliholic~~簡瑞達

Clive

#449530 Tue, 04 Dec 07 01:34 PM

Hi,

Yeah.

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (22,532)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Bokeh

#449538 Tue, 04 Dec 07 01:50 PM

Angliholic wrote:
to let his girlfriend catch up to/with him.

Personally I have never heard "catch up to him".

"Catch up with him" is a common error in this context. I would say: "so she could catch him up". "Catch up with someone" means to talk to them about what has happened in the interim period... or that something has a damaging effect on someone: "the past caught up with him". (Source: OED)

Bokeh

Joined on Sun, Mar 18 2007

Spain

Regular Member (506)

Common Errors

Grammar Geek

#449542 Tue, 04 Dec 07 02:09 PM

Bokeh, I think you are thinking about an entirely different meaning of "catch up."

This is a physical closing of the distance. When the lead runner stumbled, the runner in second place was able to catch up to him, and eventually passed him, winning the race.

Or, as the OP said, he slowed down so she could catch up to him.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (16,089)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Angliholic

#449573 Tue, 04 Dec 07 03:04 PM

Grammar Geek wrote:

Bokeh, I think you are thinking about an entirely different meaning of "catch up."

This is a physical closing of the distance. When the lead runner stumbled, the runner in second place was able to catch up to him, and eventually passed him, winning the race.

Or, as the OP said, he slowed down so she could catch up to him.

Thanks, my dear friends.

Got it!

As an aside, what does "OP" refer to?

Angliholic

Grammar

Grammar Geek

#449589 Tue, 04 Dec 07 03:37 PM

Original Poster - i.e., you!

Grammar Geek

Bokeh

#449598 Tue, 04 Dec 07 04:22 PM

Grammar Geek wrote:
Bokeh, I think you are thinking about an entirely different meaning of "catch up."

Hi GG. "Catch up to" is not BrE and not in the OED. Maybe it's an American thing ;-)

According to the OED:
Catch up: "succeed in reaching a person who is ahead of one".
Catch up with: "talk to someone whom one has not seen for some time in order to find out what they have been doing in the interim".
Catch someone up: "succeed in reaching a person who is ahead of one".

Bokeh

Grammar, Whom

Grammar Geek

#449600 Tue, 04 Dec 07 04:41 PM

How do you say, in British English, that someone "closed the distance" when one person was ahead?

Think the tortoise and the hare. What do you say the tortoise did when he got to where the hare is? We say he caught up to the hare.

Here are random examples that came up in a Google search.

So Guiliani has caught up to Romney in New Hampshire -

Has Microsoft accounting caught up to QuickBooks?

The present has not caught up to the future.

Have you noticed that the NFC seems to have caught up to the AFC?

Police catch up to Utah prison escapee

Yanks can't catch up to Mets

Grammar Geek

British English

Bokeh

#449679 Tue, 04 Dec 07 09:34 PM

Grammar Geek wrote:
How do you say, in British English, that someone "closed the distance" when one person was ahead?

Hi GG,

Many people would say "caught up with", but it's not what the OED says. I've not heard "caught up to" before but there are a lot of cases where we use different prepositions this side of the pond. In many cases the American choice has replaced (or started to replace) the typical British choice.

Bokeh

Grammar, Prepositions, British English

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