Catch up means to reach someone who is ahead of you, or to do the study or work you have missed; catch up on sleep means to get the sleep you missed. The second meaning is to meet someone after a long time and share news: Let's meet and catch up.
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catch up with + person; catch up on + work/sleep/news; catch up over + coffee/dinner
- I missed two weeks of classes, so I need to catch up on the reading.
- We hadn't seen each other since university, so we met for dinner to catch up.
- Walk a bit slower so that your little brother can catch up with us.
What changed
First versionI was ill for a week, so now I have to catch up the lessons I missed.
RevisionI was ill for a week, so now I have to catch up on the lessons I missed.
It is easy to leave out the preposition here. After catch up, the thing you missed is introduced with on: catch up on the lessons, catch up on sleep.
Catch up means you have already fallen behind and are now closing the gap. Keep up with means to keep the same pace and not fall behind in the first place: It's hard to keep up with the new material. If you do fall behind, you have to catch up.
Your turn
Alex is already far ahead of us. Let's walk faster to ___ him.
Show the answer
catch up with — The aim is to reach a person, so catch up is followed by with: catch up with him. On is used with the things you missed, such as work or sleep, not with people.
Think of something you missed recently: classes, work tasks or news. Write what exactly you need to make up for and when you will do it.
I missed three French lessons last week, so I'll catch up on the grammar exercises this Sunday.
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