Hello everyone, I hope you are all good. Welcome to the Phrasal Verb Series – Day 6! In Day 5 we finished the CARRY family. Today it is CATCH, and the difficulty is of a new kind. CARRY’s problem was four particles that all meant “finish”. CATCH’s problem is that half the family does not use a particle at all — catch fire, catch sight of, catch your eye, catch off guard — so when a question gives you four particles in the options, the answer is sometimes none of them. The other half hides a second trap: catch up, catch up on and catch up with are three different verbs, and in the third one you are no longer the one doing the catching. Read the story once, learn the meanings, then play the games and take the quiz.
🗺️ The Whole CATCH Family at a Glance
Screenshot this one picture. If you can rebuild it from memory tomorrow, Day 6 is done.
📖 The Story — Arun Plays Catch-Up
Kavita’s name was on the May list. Arun’s was not, and for the first time in four years he was the one behind. “A year is not a gap,” she told him on the phone. “It is a gap only if you do not catch up.”
So June went on arithmetic he had let slide. July went on catching up on the current affairs he had skipped for eleven months — four newspapers a week, one notebook, no videos. He hated it and he did it anyway.
The first mock was 86. Three years of reading chapters without ever testing himself had finally caught up with him, and there was nobody to blame for it. Kavita did not say so; she just sent him her sheet — one topic, one test, one honest review — and it took him four days to catch on to why the third column mattered more than the first two.
In August she caught him out. He had told her he was attempting full sets; the timestamps on the sheet said he was attempting the easy half and leaving the rest. “You are not weak at this,” she wrote back. “You are avoiding it.”
For two weeks after that he caught at every shortcut on the internet — a trick for percentages, a trick for ratios, a video called Last 30 Days Strategy. Not one of them stuck. The sheet did. By the end of September his score was 128, and in October the thing finally caught fire: he was testing without being told to.
In November, walking past his old coaching centre, he caught sight of a batch of first-year students arguing about a question on the step outside, and something in the argument caught his eye — they were doing exactly what he had done for three years, talking about the paper instead of writing it.
The December exam still caught half the hall off guard: two sections had swapped places. Arun lost ninety seconds working out what had happened, then started anyway. Afterwards Kavita asked how it had gone. “It did not go well,” he said. “It went finished.”
🎞️ Six Verbs in Six Pictures
Look at the picture first, then say the sentence out loud before you read the caption.
📝 Today’s Phrasal Verbs — Meaning, Hindi & Examples
Hindi: बराबरी कर लेना / पीछे से आकर पास पहुँचना
🧠 Memory Trick: UP = फ़ासला बंद होना। जो आगे है, उसके बराबर पहुँच जाना। ध्यान दो — अकेला catch up आदमी या स्तर के लिए है; छूटे हुए काम के लिए catch up on चाहिए।
- Meaning 1: to come from behind and reach someone who is ahead of you
- Meaning 2: to reach the level or standard that others have already reached
He ran hard and caught up with the leaders in the final lap. • She missed two weeks of class and is still catching up.
draw levelclose the gapkeep paceovertake
Hindi: बकाया पूरा करना
🧠 Memory Trick: ON के बाद हमेशा वह काम आता है जो छूट गया — नींद, ख़बरें, नोट्स, मॉक टेस्ट। आदमी नहीं, काम। यही इसकी पहचान है।
- Meaning 1: to do something you have not had time to do earlier
- Meaning 2: to get the latest information about something you missed
I spent the whole Sunday catching up on sleep. • Let me catch up on the news before the interview.
make up forclear a backlogget up to date
Hindi: पकड़ में आ जाना / भुगतना पड़ना
🧠 Memory Trick: यहाँ कर्ता आप नहीं हैं — आपका अतीत है। झूठ, कर्ज़, लापरवाही पीछे से आकर आपको पकड़ लेते हैं। दूसरा अर्थ आसान है: लंबे अंतराल के बाद किसी से मिलना-बतियाना।
- Meaning 1: (of something bad you did or avoided) to begin to affect you at last
- Meaning 2: to meet or talk to someone after a long gap
Three years of skipped revision finally caught up with him. • Let us catch up with each other once the exam is over.
take its tollcome back onreconnect
Hindi: समझ जाना / प्रचलित हो जाना
🧠 Memory Trick: ON = पकड़ बन जाना। बात आपके दिमाग़ में पकड़ बना ले → आप समझ गए। बात भीड़ में पकड़ बना ले → वह चल पड़ी। एक ही verb, पकड़ की जगह अलग।
- Meaning 1: to understand something, especially after some delay
- Meaning 2: to become popular or fashionable
It took him four days to catch on, and then the rule seemed obvious. • The new method caught on quickly in the district.
graspcotton onbecome populartake off
Hindi: गलती या झूठ पकड़ लेना
🧠 Memory Trick: OUT = जो छिपा था, वह बाहर आ गया — गलती, झूठ, अधूरी तैयारी। इसमें गलती का होना ज़रूरी है। (क्रिकेट में भी यही: कैच पर आउट।)
- Meaning 1: to discover that someone is lying or has made a mistake
- Meaning 2: to put someone in a difficult position they did not expect
- Meaning 3: (cricket) to dismiss a batsman by catching the ball
One extra clause in the question caught him out. • The same trick caught out two candidates in our batch.
exposetrip upfind outunmask
Hindi: लपकना / झपटकर पकड़ने की कोशिश करना
🧠 Memory Trick: AT = सिर्फ़ कोशिश, नतीजा पक्का नहीं। हाथ बढ़ा — पकड़ में आया या नहीं, पता नहीं। इसीलिए मुहावरा catch at a straw बना: डूबता आदमी तिनका लपकता है।
- Meaning 1: to try to take hold of something quickly
- Meaning 2: to seize any chance, however small (catch at a straw)
He caught at the rail as the bus moved off. • A drowning man will catch at a straw.
snatch atgrab atclutch atgrasp at
Hindi: आग पकड़ लेना / जोश पकड़ लेना
🧠 Memory Trick: यहाँ particle नहीं, noun है — fire। चीज़ जलने लगे, या कोई अभियान/विचार अचानक ज़ोर पकड़ ले। blank में सारे options particle के दिखें, तो जवाब शायद यहीं नहीं है।
- Meaning 1: to start burning
- Meaning 2: to suddenly become very popular or exciting
The dry grass caught fire within minutes of the spark. • The campaign caught fire after the first rally.
igniteburst into flamesgain momentumtake off
Hindi: झलक देख लेना / नज़र पड़ जाना
🧠 Memory Trick: यह see नहीं है — यह एक पल की झलक है। पूरा देखना नहीं, बस क्षण भर को दिख जाना। इसीलिए अचानक और संक्षिप्त दोनों का भाव आता है।
- Meaning: to see someone or something for a very short moment, often suddenly
I caught sight of her in the crowd and then she was gone. • He caught sight of his own name near the bottom of the list.
glimpsespotnotice briefly
Hindi: ध्यान खींच लेना
🧠 Memory Trick: आँख आपने नहीं पकड़ी — चीज़ ने आपकी आँख पकड़ ली। जो चीज़ ध्यान खींचती है, वही वाक्य का कर्ता होती है। यही उलटी बनावट परीक्षा में पूछी जाती है।
- Meaning 1: to attract someone’s attention
- Meaning 2: to get someone to look at you, for example a waiter
A small notice at the bottom of the page caught my eye. • He tried to catch the waiter’s eye for ten minutes.
attract attentionstand outdraw notice
Hindi: असावधान अवस्था में पकड़ना / चौंका देना
🧠 Memory Trick: बनावट अलग है: catch + object + state। गलती होना ज़रूरी नहीं — बस तैयारी नहीं थी। इसी ढाँचे में catch red-handed, catch napping, catch unawares भी आते हैं।
- Meaning 1: to surprise someone who is not prepared for it
- Meaning 2: to act when the other person is not ready to respond
The second question caught the whole room off guard. • Do not let a change in the pattern catch you off guard.
take by surprisecatch unawaresblindsidestartle
🧭 The Four Groups — Why the Particle Decides
CATCH always means to take hold of something that is moving. Three different things can be moving — a gap in time, an object in flight, or a person’s attention — and the fourth group turns the verb around so that the thing takes hold of you. Put each of the ten into one of those four and the family stops being a list.
1. The moving thing is a gap in time — up, up on, up with
UP always means the gap is closing. What changes is only the object, and that is the whole test. Catch up (with) takes a person or a standard: the batch, the leaders, the syllabus. Catch up on takes an activity you fell behind on: sleep, news, revision, mail. Catch up with takes something from your own past — and here the sentence turns around. In the first two you are the subject doing the catching; in the third the lies, the debts and the skipped practice are the subject, and you are the object. If a sentence has finally or at last in it, that reversal is almost always what is being tested.
2. The moving thing is in flight — at, out, on
These three are about the moment of contact. Catch at is a grab that may fail: the hand closes, but we are not told on what, which is why the fixed phrase is catch at a straw and not catch a straw. Where plain catch reports success, catch at reports only the attempt. Catch out needs two things in the sentence — a person and an error — and strictly it is the error that is caught; the person is just where it was found. Catch on runs the other way: the thing takes hold inside you and you understand it, or it takes hold across a crowd and becomes popular. Same verb, opposite direction of grip.
3. The moving thing is attention — sight of, someone’s eye
Both of these last an instant, and both drop the particle completely. Catch sight of keeps you as the subject but weakens the seeing: it is a glimpse, not a look, and it usually comes with suddenness. Catch someone’s eye reverses the subject again — the notice, the poster, the error in the margin is what does the catching. In a blank-filling question this reversal is the clue: if the thing being noticed is sitting in the subject slot, you need caught my eye, not I caught sight of.
4. The verb turns around — catch fire, catch off guard
In the last two, CATCH stops meaning “grab” and starts meaning “begin to hold” or “find in a state”, and neither takes a particle. Catch fire is catch + a bare noun: nobody decided it, it simply started — which is why the same phrase works for dry grass and for a campaign. Catch off guard is catch + object + state, the same frame as catch red-handed, catch napping and catch unawares. The practical use of knowing this is simple: when a blank in the exam offers you four particles and none of them sounds right, check whether the answer needed a noun or a state instead.
⚡ Quick Revision Table
| Phrasal Verb | Core Meaning | Hindi | One-line Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catch up | Reach someone or something ahead | बराबरी कर लेना | He caught up with the leaders. |
| Catch up on | Clear work you fell behind on | बकाया पूरा करना | I am catching up on sleep. |
| Catch up with | Past actions finally affect you | भुगतना पड़ना | The skipped practice caught up with him. |
| Catch on | Understand; become popular | समझ जाना | It took him four days to catch on. |
| Catch out | Expose a mistake or a lie | गलती पकड़ लेना | One clause caught him out. |
| Catch at | Try to grab; seize any chance | लपकना / झपटना | A drowning man catches at a straw. |
| Catch fire | Start burning; take off suddenly | आग पकड़ लेना | The dry grass caught fire. |
| Catch sight of | See for a moment, suddenly | झलक देख लेना | I caught sight of her in the crowd. |
| Catch someone’s eye | Attract attention | ध्यान खींचना | A small notice caught my eye. |
| Catch off guard | Surprise someone unprepared | असावधान पकड़ना | The new pattern caught us off guard. |
🃏 Flashcards — Tap to Flip
Tap each card, say the meaning aloud, then check.
बराबरी कर लेना
बकाया पूरा करना
भुगतना पड़ना
समझ जाना
गलती पकड़ लेना
लपकना / झपटना
आग पकड़ लेना
झलक देख लेना
ध्यान खींचना
असावधान पकड़ना
🎮 Game Zone — Play Until It Sticks
Two quick games. Play them once now and once tomorrow — that’s the whole trick.
🎯 Practice Quiz — 10 Questions
1. He missed two weeks of class and is still trying to ________ the rest of the batch.
✅ catch up with — the object is a group of people, so it is plain catch up (with). Catch up on would need an activity, not a batch.
2. I spent the whole Sunday ________ sleep and three weeks of newspapers.
✅ catching up on — sleep and newspapers are activities you fell behind on. That is always on.
3. Three years of reading without testing himself finally ________ him in the first mock.
✅ caught up with — the subject is his own past, not him. When trouble arrives from behind, the verb is catch up with and you are the object.
4. The new teaching method ________ quickly, and half the district was using it by June.
✅ caught on — an idea taking hold across a crowd. Same verb as “understand”, only the grip is in a different place.
5. It took him four days to ________, and after that the rule seemed obvious.
✅ catch on — to understand after some delay. Notice there is no object: that bareness is the giveaway.
6. One extra clause in the question ________ him ________ — he had learnt the rule but not the exception.
✅ caught … out — there is a real mistake in the sentence, and out is the verb that exposes one.
7. A drowning man will ________ a straw.
✅ catch at — the fixed proverb. At marks an attempt that may well fail; plain catch would claim he succeeded.
8. The dry grass ________ within minutes of the spark reaching it.
✅ caught fire — catch + a bare noun, no particle at all. Watch for this when every option in front of you is a particle.
9. A small notice at the bottom of the page ________ as I turned over.
✅ caught my eye — the notice is the subject. If the thing being noticed is doing the catching, you need caught my eye.
10. The two sections had swapped places, and the change ________ most candidates ________.
✅ caught … off guard — nobody made a mistake; they were simply unprepared. Out would need an error to expose.
✍️ Cloze Test — Fill in the Blanks
Type the correct phrasal verb (any tense) and press Check.
- I spent the whole Sunday ________ sleep.
- Years of skipped revision finally ________ him.
- It took him four days to ________, and then it seemed obvious.
- A drowning man will ________ a straw.
- The dry grass ________ within minutes of the spark.
- The sudden change of pattern caught the whole hall ________.
🏠 Homework — Write It Once, Remember It Forever
Take your notebook and write one original sentence for each of these, using your own life:
- catch up (with a person)
- catch up on (something you have been putting off)
- catch up with (something from your own past)
- catch on (understand)
- catch on (become popular)
- catch out (a mistake, not a person)
- catch at (a straw, or a chance)
- catch fire (literal, then figurative)
- catch sight of / catch someone’s eye
- catch someone off guard
Writing beats re-reading. Ten sentences today are worth two hours of passive revision.
📅 Your 3-Touch Revision Plan
Spaced repetition beats cramming. Tick each touch as you complete it:
🔗 Continue the Series
That’s Day 6 done. The whole CATCH family is in your pocket now — and more usefully, you know the two questions to ask before you pick. First: is the gap closing on a person, on a task, or on me? Second: does this blank even want a particle, or does it want a noun like fire or a state like off guard? Revise this page tomorrow morning for five minutes, then again after three days. When you want this drilled under a clock, the SSC Practice Center and the Smart Study Tools have timed English sets; the SSC English Hub keeps every lesson in one place, and the Vocab Series runs alongside this one. See you in Day 7 with the COME family. Just focus more!! 💪