awake, awaken, wake, or waken?
Although all four verbs are interchangeable in both the transitive and the intransitive meanings, in practice awake and awaken are preferred in figurative meanings: At last we awoke to the dangers that faced us. When used in literal meanings awake and awaken are normally used intransitively or in the passive: He awoke at four in the morning.I was awakened by shouts in the street.Will you wake us at four?Wake is the only one of these verbs that can be followed by up: I woke up at six this morning.
|
