*'Wake,' 'Awake' and 'Awaken' as Verbs

Wake, awake, and awaken are weird and, together, they’re a great example of how weird English can be. They’re synonyms that, really, we don’t need. But until we put some of them out to pasture, we’ll continue to have all these forms.

First to go will probably be the verb form of awake. In my world, it’s only used as an adjective. I was awake. I never hear it as a verb: When I awake.

This verb use has a distinctly Jane Austen ring to it. I shall awake before dawn. Nobody talks that way anymore, at least not anywhere I can hear them. Everyone uses wake up, woke up, and woken up.

But until the dictionaries drop it, you can continue to use it in all its weird forms without worry, right along with its weird cousins.

To form the past tense and the past participle of awaken and awake, just add “ed.”

Yesterday I awakened.

Yesterday I awaked.

In the past I have awakened.

In the past I have awaked.

Again, I’m betting that “Yesterday I awaked” and “In the past I have awaked” aren’t that useful to you. And you may not like “awakened” in casual speech, either. But that could come in handy in certain types of writing, especially fiction, where characters’ speech peculiarities so often help round them out as people.

If you forget the past tenses of any of these, remember: They’re all right in the dictionary. They’re listed right after the main entry for the word. Plus, some of these past tenses even have their own entries at m-w.com. So they’re easy to find.

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