Awake And Wake Differences

In British English, the verbs awake and wake are irregular.

• Awake – awoke – awoken (GB and US)
• Wake – woke – woken (GB and US)

In American English, these verbs can be regular.

• Awake – awakened – awakened (US only)
• Wake – wakened – wakened (US only)

Use

Wake is the most common of these verbs. It can mean ‘stop sleeping’ or ‘make somebody else stop sleeping’. Wake is often followed by up.

• Don’t wake him up.
• I woke up several times in the night.

Waken can be used instead of wake up in a literary style.

• The prince wakened the princess with a kiss. (= The price woke the princess up with a kiss.)