Raise - rise - rouse

These verbs, which are all connected, can be confused. In formal English, be careful not to confuse the transitive forms raise and rouse with the intransitive (irregular) form rise. This is seen as a solecism.

• One pair of meanings is to do with getting out of bed in the morning, or similarly leaving a horizontal position for a vertical stance.
  • For a person who is getting up, the verb to use here is the intransitive verb 'to rise'.
  • When I rise, I get up. (The same is true, figuratively, of the sun: we say 'the sun rises' when it appears to go higher in the sky, although of course this apparent motion of the sun is in fact the rotation of the earth.) The past tense (i.e. when you want to say 'yesterday') of this verb is rose - 'When I was on holiday, I rose late'. The past participle (which follows 'have', etc) is risen - 'The sun has risen.'
  • If I want to wake someone else (either literally or figuratively), I rouse him. This is the transitive verb. The past tense and past participle are both roused.

These verbs have slightly old-fashioned equivalents, with the Middle English prefix a-: arise and arouse. 'I will arise and go now,' said the Irish poet W. B. Yeats (The Lake Isle of Innisfree). Sometimes a person in extreme emotion is said to be aroused (the past participle - which has the same form as the past tense).

• A second pair of meanings is to do with bringing objects or people to a vertical, or higher position.
  • When we want to say something like 'to make something rise', the proper verb is the transitive verb 'to raise'.
  • When a baker makes a cake, a successful one will rise - it will become taller in the oven. Sometimes a baker will raise bread - will make it grow taller. The bread rises; the baker raises it. (This is the difference between intransitive and transitive verbs.) In the past tense, this becomes: the bread rose, the baker raised it. Similarly, 'The ancient people of Britain raised monuments like Stonehenge.'

In academic circles, 'My student has raised an interesting question' sometimes means 'I don't know the answer to this' - in colloquial English, it might be 'My student brought up a question', and intransitively, 'The question came up.'

When one talks about bringing up, or educating, children (or animals), the verb is to raise. The past tense and past participle are raised. 'The farmer raises sheep'; 'She raised her daughters to be strong.'