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Tue 20 Nov, 2007 02:38 am
[quote]Your special shoes look like fun....Dad asks can you stay caught up to them.[/quote]
That's part of an email I got today.
But what is Dad (my father-in-law) actually asking me?
"stay caught up to" appears to be a fairly local US English idiom meaning roughly "keep abreast of" or "keep pace with", so perhaps he means humorously that the shoes look so sporty and fast that the wearer would have trouble keeping up with them.
Thanks...
I got some Heely's and sent him (and his wife) a picture, so I suppose that is what he meant!
Makes sense...
Your special shoes look like fun....Dad asks can you keep up with them.
Would you have understood if it had been written
Dad asked, "Can he stay caught up with them?"
Maybe it's a local phrase.. I've never heard or read 'stay caught up', but can imagine someone in a busy office hoping to catch up with work and then stay caught up..
Maybe it's a Midwesternism, it makes sense to me. You catch up to someone and then you stay caught up with him or her, as opposed to immediately falling back behind.
I think it was a deliberate attempt to mystify Bohne, because she's one a them Dutch speakers who just won't get it . . . get it?
I've heard 'stay caught up' often enough, but always as a red queen type thing. You know, you have to run as fast as you can to just stay in one place. Here, it's probably mean as contrex says.
Bohne wrote:dutch??? 
That's how Americans spell "Deutsch" maybe?
Bohne wrote:dutch???
Don't try to play the disingenuous little girl with me, Bohne. I know that when you want to ask someone if they speak your langauge, you ask them: "Sprechen-sie Dutch?" And what do you call your country? Dutchland.
I rest my case.
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