Vocabulary · Free lesson
Rise or raise? Follow what goes up
The price changed from $8 to $9. You can describe the change or name the store that made it. The sentence pattern changes with your focus.
Professor Scott MendozaThe short answer
Prices rise. A store raises prices. Rise describes the subject going up; raise acts on an object. In the past, use rose and raised.
Does the subject go up, or raise something else?
In The price rose, price is the subject. In The store raised the price, store is the subject and price is the object. Rise does not mean the change had no cause; it simply does not name an object being raised.
Compare the examples
The price rose yesterday.
The store raised the price yesterday.
The price rose by one dollar.
Rise → rose → risen. Raise → raised → raised. Write Prices have risen, not have rose.
Build the meaning step by step
Choose the subject
The price / The store
Match the pattern
The price rose. / The store raised the price.
Try it now
Choose the pattern
Read all answers and explanations
Complete: The water level ___ last night.
roseThe level itself went up. Rose is the simple past; risen needs an appropriate auxiliary such as has.
Complete: Please ___ your hand.
raiseYour hand is the object you move upward, so use raise.
Complete: The shop ___ its prices on Monday.
raisedThe shop acted on its prices. Raised is the regular past form.
Put it into practice
Report both sides of the change
Keep both facts and use the simple past.
The cafe rose its prices, so my lunch cost raised.
See a model answer
The cafe raised its prices, so my lunch cost rose.
The same event can be described from two grammatical viewpoints.
A little more clarity
Common questions
A few useful details before you move on.
Can words come after rise?
Yes. In Prices rose by $2, by $2 gives the amount of change. It is not the direct object of rise.
Prices rose by $2.
Are the past forms rose and raised interchangeable?
No. Rose is the past of rise; raised is the past of raise. Keep the same distinction between a change happening and someone causing that change.
The company raised prices, and prices rose.
Take it into your day
Something rises; someone raises something.
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