Herb CaenCharles DickensLibrary Journal
Chris Kilham
Karola Saekel
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The Past Tense Forms of Awake and Awaken
Awake and awaken are two distinct verbs that mean the same thing. In other words, they're synonyms, and in the present tense they each behave the way English verbs typically behave:
The cat awakes at dawn.
The cat awakens at dawn.
Things get trickier in the past tense.
Our modern verb awake is the result of the long-ago melding of two older verbs. These verbs were very similar, but one had regular past tense forms (like play: played, has played) and the other had irregular past tense forms (like take: took, has taken).
When the two verbs melded into the modern awake (which was a process over many years), things got complicated, resulting ultimately in the following grammatically permissible sentences:
The cat awaked at dawn.
The cat awoke at dawn.
The cat was awaked by the mouse at dawn.
The cat was awoken by the mouse at dawn.
Note, though, that at this point, these are the most common:
The cat awoke at dawn.
The cat was awoken by the mouse at dawn.
That's the story of awake. Fortunately awaken (which was originally one of the past tense forms of awake) is simpler. It's a regular verb, which means it has the usual past tense forms:
The cat awakened at dawn.
The cat was awakened at dawn by a mouse.
As if all this weren't complicated enough, awake is also an adjective:
Because of the cat, I too am now awake.
For a detailed discussion of the history of these words, please see the The Grammatical History of 'Awaken' / 'Awoken' / 'Awakened'.
Examples of awaken in a Sentence
Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2024
According to Winter Haven Police, residents inside a home on 6th St SW in Winter Haven, Florida, were suddenly awakened on Thursday at about 1:36 a.m. to a loud bang at the front door.
—Landon Mion, Fox News, 7 Dec. 2024
Her presence awakens the insecurities of Ben’s veterinarian mother.
—Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 4 Dec. 2024
Infinity Nikki awakened a burning desire to collect every pattern and piece of clothing.
—Josh Broadwell, Rolling Stone, 4 Dec. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Awaken.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/awaken. Accessed 24 Dec. 2024.
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