Awake and wake

In British English, the verbs awake and wake are irregular.

Awake – awoke – awoken (GB and US)
Wake – woke – woken (GB and US)

In American English, these verbs can be regular.

Awake – awakened – awakened (US only)
Wake – wakened – wakened (US only)

Wake is the most common of these verbs. It can mean ‘stop sleeping’ or ‘make somebody else stop sleeping’. Wake is often followed by up.

• Don’t wake him up.
• I woke up several times in the night.

Waken can be used instead of wake up in a literary style.

• The prince wakened the princess with a kiss. (= The price woke the princess up with a kiss.)

Subscribe and win a grammar eBook

Subscribe to our feed by email and win an eBook titled '120 Grammar and Vocabulary Mistakes to Avoid'.

The download link will be sent by email. Please make sure that you have enabled links and images in your email.