Acciones básicas en español con la pelota

What does “cachar” mean in Spanish?

Cachar means “to catch,” as in catching a ball: cachar la pelota. It comes straight from the English word “catch,” so it is an anglicism. It is common in Mexico and much of Latin America, though in Spain people usually say atrapar or coger. It has a second everyday use too: to catch someone in the act — me cacharon (“they caught me”).

In the clip the action is sports: Yo lanzo la pelota, tú cacha la pelota (“I throw the ball, you catch the ball”). In a plain present-tense sentence the standard form is tú cachas; the clip’s tú cacha sounds more like a command (“you, catch it!”). In Chile you will also hear ¿cachái? (“you get it?”), where cachar means “to understand.”