#Awaken or awoken how to#

There’s so much confusion and disagreement about these words and their past tense forms that you ought to be safe no matter what you decide. You may find that you want to use different words for transitive and intransitive use.īottom line: Choose the form or forms you prefer. Here are a few more examples showing the different forms in action. This grave incident should awaken society to rid itself of prejudice. Oil spill should awaken us to nuclear danger. Omar Bongo’s Demise Should Awaken Continent’s Tyrants Journalists use awaken to establish a serious tone:

#Awaken or awoken how to#

Self-help gurus show us how to awaken various aspects of our personalities:īoth awake and awaken are popular title words:Īnd of course, there’s Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening.”

Sinners are exhorted to awaken to their transgressions. Just when you thought there was nothing going on, the sun is going to waken!Īwake and Awaken are also used for the literal waking of a sleeper, but in addition, these words carry literary and theological connotations that simple wake does not. I often waken in the night and can’t go back to sleep. In 29% of patients, the pain is severe enough to waken the patient. I have woken up in the middle of the night not being able to breathe… Getting your teenager to wake up in the morning Why does Atticus wake the children in the middle of the night? the technician returns to wake the patient and remove the sensors. Wake, wake up, and waken are possibly the most commonly used words for the literal act of rousing a sleeper.Īround 6 a.m. In the case of awaken and waken, the weak ending is standard.Īlthough these words mean more or less the same thing, I think they’ve all remained in the language because they express different slivers of meaning about waking and wakefulness. In the case of awake and wake, we may choose to use either the strong or the weak endings: OE “weak” verbs developed past tense forms that end in -ed in modern English. Note: Certain OE “strong” verbs developed past tense forms that end in -en in modern English. Transitive: To rouse (a person or animal) from sleep or unconsciousness.Ĭonfusion about the past tense forms stems from the fact that the words evolved from two Old English verbs, one of which was “strong” and one of which was “weak.” Intransitive: to cease to sleep to become awake Transitive: to rouse from sleep or unconsciousness Intransitive: to be or remain awake to keep oneself, or be kept, awake Intransitive: to arise or spring into existence

Transitive: to arouse (someone) from sleep. Intransitive: to come out of the state of sleep to cease to sleep In modern usage, all of these verbs may be used intransitively or transitively: Should it be “awoken” or “awakened”? The same confusion attaches to the verbs awaken, wake, and waken. The past tense of the verb awake gives lots of people fits. “awake in all its bizarre forms-awokened?”