The Phrasal Verb 'Catch On' Explained
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'catch on' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native.
This post is all about the phrasal verb 'catch on', which is one that can be used to talk about a variety of different subjects like understanding, fashion and being realistic. It has two main meanings in English and in the post I will explain both of these for you, as well as its other lesser known meanings, including one that is used in Irish English only. As per usual, I will give you lots of example sentences in context to show you how each one is used. So, let's get started and find out what 'catch on' is all about....
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
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THE BASICS
CATCH ON: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 4 |
Past tense forms | Caught on / Caught on |
Separable? | Sometimes |
Before we get started with the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'catch on', let's first take a moment to consider the meanings of the individual words 'catch' and 'on' and what they mean on their own....
Catch - 'To catch' is a common irregular verb with several meanings that can be frequently heard in contemporary everyday English. The most common meaning of 'to catch' is probably 'to stop something that is travelling through the air and not let it fall to the ground'. Another extremely common meaning that it has is 'to capture a person or animal that is trying to escape or move away from you'. Additionally, some lesser used meanings of 'to catch' include 'to travel with public transport', 'to get an infectious disease' and 'to make contact with something and get stuck to it'.
The aim of the game is to catch the ball when it is thrown.
Whoever catches the bouquet of flowers will be the next person to get married.
The police caught the criminals after a long car chase.
James catches the train to work every day.
My sister has caught a cold, so she is not coming to the party.
My coat got caught in the car door.
On - The prepositional particle 'on' is one that is extremely common in phrasal verbs and typically functions to give ideas like contact and continuation or sometimes both (go on, carry on, put on). Furthermore, when 'on' appears in phrasal verbs it can add ideas like activation (turn on), focus (work on) and transfer (pass on).
So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'catch on'....
MEANING 1: Literal
CEFR Language Level | B1 - Intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To snag |
Separable? | Yes |
Let's begin by easing ourselves in gently with the first meaning of the phrasal verb 'catch on', which is the literal meaning. It may surprise you to learn that this one is not as commonly used as some of its other meanings. You should also note that when used literally, 'catch on' is a prepositional verb phrase and it is not strictly a true phrasal verb usage, however it is one that you are likely to come across and so I wanted to include it for you.
Nouns commonly used with this application.....
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With so many different meanings of the verb 'to catch', you may be wondering what the literal meaning of 'catch on' could be. To clarify, the meaning of the verb 'to catch' that we are taking literally is 'hitting something and sticking to it', which is essentially what this first meaning is. We simply then add the prepositional particle 'on' to specify what the thing sticks to.
Let me explain by way of an example. Imagine that you are walking through an area that is overgrown with grass, plants and weeds etc. As you are walking, you move past a rose bush with lots of sharp thorns (like the picture above) and one of the thorns sticks into your trouser leg, meaning that when you move it again, your trousers tear. In this situation, you could say that "you caught your trouser leg on a thorn".
On a grammar note, this usage is always used in separable way in active sentences. It is also very common to use it this way in the passive voice, particularly with the 'get' passive: 'to get something caught on something'.
Active sentences....
Norman caught his sleeve on a nail as he walked past the fence.
Abigail caught her necklace on the door handle and almost broke it.
Philip caught his backpack on a low branch while hiking.
I caught my coat on the corner of the table as I stood up.
Marianne caught her hair on the zip of her jacket.
Rob caught his trousers on a piece of wire climbing over the fence and ripped a big hole in them.
Passive sentences....
The fishing line caught on a rock at the bottom of the river and the fisherman could not get it out again.
The kite string caught on a lamppost and wouldn’t come free.
Kate's necklace got caught on the door handle and snapped.
As he climbed over the fence, Mark's trousers got caught on a piece of wire.
Lucy tried to pull away, but her scarf had got caught on a nail.
The curtain got caught on the window latch and wouldn’t close properly.
One other time that you may come across 'catch on' in a (kind of) literal sense is with the expression to 'catch on fire', which just means to begin burning.
The old wooden shed caught on fire after lightning struck it.
One of the candles tipped over and the curtain caught on fire.
MEANING 2: To become popular or fashionable
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To become popular / trendy, to take off, to blow up |
Separable? | No |
For our second application of the phrasal verb 'catch on', we are going to look at one of the two most common meanings, which is 'to become popular or fashionable'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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One thing that we can all be certain about in life is that everything changes from one day to the next and nothing stays the same forever. One area in which this is most obvious is with things that become popular with people; in society, new styles of clothes, music artists and hairdos are constantly becoming trendy and then being replaced by something else newer when people grow bored of them. In these instances when something first becomes popular with people, we can say that it "catches on".
This is similar to the usage that we have with 'fire' that I mentioned in the last section as if something catches fire, the fire tends to increase very quickly until the whole object is burning and in this figurative sense, the fire is the trend that burns through society.
We can use this application with anything that becomes popular or mainstream among people, however we can also use it when something does not become popular when it was expected to.
On a grammatical note, this usage is inseparable. Sometimes, we add the additional preposition 'with' to specify the group of people with whom something becomes popular.
That new fitness trend is really starting to catch on.
The idea didn’t catch on at first, but now it’s everywhere and everyone is talking about it.
It took a while, but the concept eventually caught on.
Some trends catch on quickly, while others fade away.
That hairstyle never really caught on outside the big cities.
His music is finally catching on with a wider audience.
The product failed to catch on in the European market.
For some reason, the trend never quite caught on with younger people.
It was popular for a while, but it didn’t really catch on long-term.
MEANING 3: To understand something
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To realise, to understand |
Separable? | No |
Let's now move on to our third meaning of the phrasal verb 'catch on', which is the other of the commonest applications, especially in spoken English, and means 'to understand or to realise something'.
To explain further, we do not really use this application for when someone understands something easily or immediately, rather it is mainly used when someone takes time to understand something. This is particularly the case if he or she found it difficult to understand it.
Alternatively, we can also use 'catch on' in this way to talk about when someone is late to realise that something is happening, specifically when all of the other people understand it or know what is happening.
Like with the previous application, this one is also inseparable. It is sometimes followed by the additional preposition 'to' to specify the thing that is understood or realised.
It took me a while, but I finally caught on.
Kerry eventually caught on to what was happening after we'd been trying to show her for 10 minutes.
Alma didn’t catch on at first, but eventually she understood the joke.
Ben’s quite quick; he usually catches on straight away.
By the time I caught on, it was too late to say anything.
It took them ages to catch on to what we were doing.
They haven’t caught on yet, but they will soon.
Jeremy caught on that something wasn’t right.
MEANING 4: To start thinking realistically
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Irish English |
Potential synonyms | To wake up, to see sense |
Separable? | Yes |
Our fourth and final usage of the phrasal verb 'catch on' is one that is limited geographically to the Emerald Isle (Ireland) and means 'to start thinking realistically'.
To give you more information, this application is used in situations in which a person is being naïve about something or has ideas about things that are never going to happen in reality. It tends to be quite critical or corrective in tone as the speaker often wants the other person to stop believing that something will happen or is possible when it is not.
As I mentioned, this is an Irish English and even though I am from the UK just across a very small sea from there, I have to admit that I have never heard it before.
Michael needs to catch on and realise how serious this is.
You’d want to catch on; that’s never going to work.
Marie hasn’t caught on yet if she thinks Brendan’ll change.
They need to catch on and stop wasting money like that.
Catch on, will you? You can’t keep doing this.
Paul’d want to catch on fairly quickly in that job.
If you don’t catch on soon, you’ll be in trouble.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'catch on'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'catch on'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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THE END
You'll have to catch on and see reality.
Thank you, James.