Catch up with
Today’s expression is to catch up with a person. There are several ways of using this phrasal verb, but I’m going to explain just one of those ways today. The way I used it in today’s lesson is not the most common way of using it, but it’s worth knowing.
I said that Diego Maradona’s alcohol- and drug-fueled lifestyle caught up with him when he tested positive for cocaine and was banned from soccer for 15 months. In this sense, a bad habit catches up with you when you start to feel its consequences.
It is possible for some people to perform at a high level in sports, even as they use—sometimes heavily use—drugs and alcohol. There are examples in almost every sport: soccer, baseball, basketball, football, tennis. Sometimes, players can get away with drug or alcohol use and never face negative consequences on the field. Other times, though, the players start to feel the consequences of their actions. They might fail a drug test, like Maradona did, or their bodies might start to break down or they might have to go into rehab.
In Maradona’s case, he was doing just fine taking drugs and alcohol every week. He’d just quit by Thursday and detox and be ready for the game on the weekend. It was a risky lifestyle that finally caught up with him. He finally faced the consequences of his risky lifestyle, when he failed a drug test and was banned from the game.
Another bad habit, as we documented a few months ago, is lack of sleep. Sometimes if I don’t sleep well for several nights in a row, I just can’t concentrate during the day. And then one day I’ll be so exhausted I’ll go to bed at 8 or 9 at night and sleep clear until 8 or 9 the next morning. In that case, I’d say, the lack of sleep finally caught up with me. I’m finally starting to pay for my bad habit. I’m paying when I don’t feel well during the day, and I’m paying when I have to sleep extra hours to recover.
Some people have stressful jobs. Some people can manage a stressful job; they even like it. But sometimes all the stress at work can catch up with you. It catches up with you when you start to feel negative consequences: your health fails, you put on weight, your personal relationships suffer, you start smoking, you develop a drinking problem or a drug habit, whatever. Maybe for you it’s just a feeling of being burnt out and not able to continue; it could be negative psychological consequences. Certainly that won’t happen to everyone with a high-stress job. But some people will start to feel the consequences. If that happens, you can say, “all that stress is catching up with me” or “His stressful lifestyle is finally catching up with him.”
Sadly, many people who smoked for years develop lung cancer. For them, the years of smoking finally catch up with them. They finally feel the consequences.
JR’s song of the week
JR’s song of the week is “With or Without You” by U2—one of my favorite songs from the late 1980s, off the album called The Joshua Tree. Famous photograph on the cover of that album. A Joshua tree is a species of tree; it’s kind of a scraggly-looking tree, like a cross between a normal tree and a cactus. There’s a national park in the Mojave desert in California called Joshua Tree National Park, where the photos in the album artwork were shot. The famous line in the song is, “I can’t live with or without you.” The song of the week is “With or Without You” by the Irish rock band U2. And you can play the song of the week right from your dashboard if you’re a member at any level—including the free level—on our web site, PlainEnglish.com.
See you next time!
And that brings us to the end of today’s audio lesson. Remember, the full lesson is available online at PlainEnglish.com/321. The video lesson today is all about how to talk about something that is no longer true. That’s what the videos are all about—they’re usually about 10 to 20 minutes long and I walk you through step by step how to express an idea in English. Today’s video is all about describing something that was true in the past, but is not true today. So if you’re a Plus+ member, you’ll enjoy that; if not, you can sign up yourself at PlainEnglish.com/Plus.
And that is all today. Congratulations on finishing another lesson; remember, we’ll be right back here on Monday.
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
