🤔 Grammar · Commonly Confused Words
Rise vs Raise
Prices rise by themselves; someone has to raise them. Learn the object test that separates this pair for good.
Grammar › Commonly Confused Words › Rise vs Raise
The rule in one sentenceUse rise when something goes up by itself (ticket prices for Cure rose after strong reviews) and raise when someone lifts or increases something else (Disney raised its theme park ticket prices) — if you can name what’s being raised, use raise.
What’s the difference?
Rise and raise both describe upward movement, and both often get used in headlines about money, temperature and box office numbers — which is exactly why they’re mixed up so often. The test is the same one that separates lie and lay: does the verb take a direct object?
Rise is intransitive. Something rises on its own, with no outside actor named in the sentence. When Woman in the Dunes opened in cinemas, ticket demand rose across the world — nobody is described as raising it; it simply went up.
Raise is transitive. Someone or something raises an object. When Disney increased entry prices at its theme parks the same year, the company raised the prices — here, “the prices” is the object being acted on.
🎬 Compare: In Battle Royale, tension rises among the students as the game begins (it happens on its own — no object) vs. the students raise their weapons the moment the signal sounds (the students raise their weapons — an object).
The same scene contains both verbs, because one describes something happening on its own and the other describes an action performed on something.
Raise is fully regular — raise, raised, raised — so its forms are never in doubt. Rise is irregular — rise, rose, risen — and it’s usually the irregular past participle, “risen”, that native speakers themselves get wrong.
There’s a useful family word too: arise, a more formal cousin of rise used for abstract things like problems, opportunities or conflicts rather than physical objects — it follows the same intransitive pattern (arise, arose, arisen).
How to build it
RISE — no object (intransitive)
Ticket sales rise every October when horror fans revisit Ringu.
Box office numbers rose after Dark Water (2002) premiered in Japan.
past tense: rose (never “raised” without an object)Streaming subscriptions have risen sharply since #Alive debuted.
past participle: risenRAISE — needs an object (transitive)
Disney raises marketing budgets every summer blockbuster season.
The studio raised its production budget for Dark Water (2002).
past tense: raised — always regularThe marketing campaign for Audition had raised awareness months before release.
past participle: raisedWhen to use which
Use RISE when…
- There’s no direct object — the subject moves up by itself. The sun rises over the coastline each morning in The Naked Island.
- You’re describing numbers, levels or temperature changing on their own. Netflix’s streaming prices have risen steadily since 2020.
- You mean “get up” or “increase” without naming who or what caused it.
Use RAISE when…
- There’s a direct object — someone lifts or increases something specific. Soo-hyun raises his weapon in I Saw the Devil.
- You’re describing a deliberate action by a person or organisation. The studio raised its budget for Pulse (2001).
- You mean “lift”, “increase” or “bring up” — always with something named right after it.
Quick test
Ask yourself: what is being raised? If you can name the thing — “Disney raises the ticket price” — use raise. If nothing follows, and the subject is simply going up on its own — “the ticket price rises” — use rise. The object is the whole test.
Visual guide
Teacher Teddy’s illustrated guide to this rule is being drawn — the full swipe-through infographic will appear here soon.
Common mistakes
❌ The sun raises over the coastline each morning in The Naked Island.
✅ The sun rises over the coastline each morning in The Naked Island.
The sun has no object acting on it — it goes up by itself — so this needs rise, not raise.
❌ Soo-hyun rose his weapon the moment he found his target in I Saw the Devil.
✅ Soo-hyun raised his weapon the moment he found his target in I Saw the Devil.
“His weapon” is the object being lifted, so the transitive verb raise is needed, past tense “raised”.
❌ Box office numbers for Audition raised throughout its cinema run.
✅ Box office numbers for Audition rose throughout its cinema run.
No object — the numbers went up by themselves — so this is rise, past tense “rose”.
Exceptions & tricky cases
1. British vs American nouns. In British English, a salary increase is a “pay rise”; in American English, it’s a “raise”. Both come from the same verbs, but the noun forms split across the Atlantic.
2. “Arise” is a formal relative, not a synonym for “rise”. A conflict arises between Thanos and the Avengers in Avengers: Infinity War — you’d never say a conflict “rises”, because arise is reserved for abstract situations, problems and opportunities.
3. “Raise” a child is American English; British English often says “bring up” or “rear”. Sun-woo was raised through the ranks of his organisation in A Bittersweet Life — perfectly natural in both varieties, but “reared” would sound old-fashioned today.
4. Idioms fix the verb regardless of logic. “Raise the roof” and “raise hell” both use the transitive verb even though nothing is literally lifted — treat them as set phrases rather than testing them for an object.
Practice: choose the right verb
Eight quick questions. Pick the answer you’d actually write — you get the explanation either way.
1. The sun ___ slowly over the village in the opening minutes of Kwaidan.
No object — the sun does it alone → “rises”.
2. The cinema staff ___ the volume for the tense reed-field scenes in Onibaba.
“The volume” is the object → “raised”.
3. Ticket prices ___ across the country the week Cure opened.
No object, past tense → “rose”.
4. Fans ___ their phones to film Tilda Swinton at the film festival premiere.
“Their phones” is the object → “raised”.
5. Paul Mescal’s profile ___ steadily after his breakout television role.
No object, present tense → “rises”.
6. By the final act, ticket sales for 1987: When the Day Comes had ___ past every early estimate.
No object, past participle → “risen”.
7. A serious problem ___ for the crew when the lighting equipment stopped working during The Man from Nowhere.
An abstract problem, not a physical object → “arose” (the formal relative of rise).
8. The producers ___ extra funding for a wider release of Audition.
“Extra funding” is treated as the object earned/generated → “raised”.
Keep going
Related lessons in Commonly Confused Words:
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