When to use “woke” or “woken”?
To wake, as in the verb, is ‘to come out of sleep or a state like or suggestive of sleep, as a stupor or trance; awake often with wake up’. The verb “wake” is an irregular verb with two different past tense verb conjugations:
- Wake is the present simple tense.
- Woke is the simple past tense verb form;
- Woken is the past participle (pairs with auxiliary verbs to form perfect/continuous tenses).
“Wake” is also a countable noun understood as, “a gathering or social event that is held before or after someone’s funeral” (this is not the sense in which we’re using the verb wake).
To be woke is also a slang term, as in ‘politically woke‘ or especially aware of current social issues. This post is on woke as in the past tense of wake.
Conjugations of “wake”
| present | past | future | |
| simple | I wake | I woke | I will wake |
| continuous | I am waking | I was waking | I will be waking |
| perfect | I have woken | I had woken | I will have woken |
| perfect continuous | I have been waking | I had been waking | I will have been waking |
1. Wake is in the present tense: She went upstairs to wake Milton.
2. Wakes is the third-person present singular: Henry wakes each morning at the same exact time, 7:36 a.m.
3. Waking is the present participle form: My favourite thing in the world is waking up to breakfast in bed.
4. Woke is the simple past: She woke to find her dark room lit by flashing lights.
5. Woken is the past participle: They’d woken up to the sounds of the wolves howling and the birds chirping just outside their window, and remembered why they moved to the north.
What’s the difference between woke and woken?
Past tense: Something woke her in the middle of the night.
Past participle: They’d woken to the sounds of the wolves howling and the birds chirping just outside their window, and remembered why they moved north.
“They’d woken” = they + had woken. To form the past perfect tense or aspect, we combine had with the past participle form of the verb, which here is woken. ‘They had woke up to the sounds of the birds chirping,’ may sound correct, but technically it should be ‘had woken up to’, since this uses the auxiliary verb (had) with the past participle (woken) to form the past perfect tense.
Another example is ‘She had woke up earlier than she had planned, and ended up being grumpy for the rest of the day.’ This, technically speaking, is improper grammar, and the correct form is ‘woken‘ (the auxiliary, had, indicates the pp. form of the verb should be used).
Sentence examples with “wake” (present tense)
She went upstairs to wake Milton.
It was a nice way to wake up.
There really is no quick fix in this waking nightmare. (present continuous)
Another common time to wake in the middle of the night is when your blood sugar drops. – Lisa Desantis, Glamour, 8 Feb. 2023
It seemed to “sleep in the winter and wake again each spring”. Christy Campbell, Phylloxera
Sentence examples with “woke” (simple past)
Bob woke slowly to sunshine pouring in his window.
Something woke her in the middle of the night.
At dawn I woke him up and said we were leaving.
It was cold and dark when I woke at 6.30.
One morning I woke up and felt something was wrong.
Sentence examples with “woken” (past participle)
They’ve finally woken up to the truth.
I’d just woken up and was still drowsy.
He’d woken at 5.00 a. m. on the sofa with his tie still up to his neck.
You’ve just woken up to the sound of your cat hacking up a symphony and you get up to investigate.
I’ve been woken up the past five nights from the sound of construction, and I’m tired of it.
Synonyms of wake
- rise
- arise
- to regain consciousness
- to become awake
Phrases with the word wake
| Phrase | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| in the wake of | meaning in the aftermath or following something or someone | In the wake of the pandemic, many businesses had to close down permanently. |
| wake up and smell the coffee | to become aware of and face reality, especially when it is unpleasant | “You need to wake up and smell the coffee – you can’t keep spending money like this.” |
| behind the wake | following behind a boat or ship, often in a motorboat or another vessel | We followed in a small motorboat behind the wake of the yacht. |
| leave in one’s wake | to leave a lasting impression or effect on something or someone | Her art left a powerful legacy in its wake. |
| a wake-up call | a sudden event or realization that prompts someone to take action or make changes in their life | Losing his job was a wake-up call for him to start pursuing his dreams. |
Origin of the word “wake”
From etymology online on wake (v.):
“To become awake,” a Middle English merger of Old English wacan “to become awake, arise, be born, originate,” and Old English wacian “to be or remain awake,” both from Proto-Germanic *wakjanan (source also of Old Saxon wakon, Old Norse vaka, Danish vaage, Old Frisian waka, Dutch waken, Old High German wahhen, German wachen “to be awake,” Gothic wakan “to watch”), from PIE root *weg- “to be strong, be lively.”
Worksheet on the tenses of ‘wake’
Here’s a quick quiz to test your knowledge of the tenses of the verb “wake.”
1. Present Simple Tense: She _______ up early every day.
a) wakes
b) wake
c) is waking
2. Present Continuous Tense: Right now, they _______ from a nap.
a) wakes
b) wake
c) are waking
3. Past Simple Tense: Yesterday, he _______ up late.
a) wakes
b) woke
c) is waking
4. Past Continuous Tense: At 6 AM yesterday, she _______ from a deep sleep.
a) wakes
b) was waking
c) wake
5. Present Perfect Tense: They _______ early every day this week.
a) has woken
b) wake
c) have woken
6. Future Simple Tense: Tomorrow, she _______ up at dawn.
a) wakes
b) wake
c) will wake
7. Future Continuous Tense: By this time tomorrow, they _______ from a long night’s sleep.
a) wakes
b) will wake
c) will be waking
8. Present Perfect Continuous Tense: She _______ up early for a while.
a) wakes
b) has woken
c) wake
Answers
- a) wakes
- c) are waking
- b) woke
- b) was waking
- c) have woken
- c) will wake
- c) will be waking
- b) has woken
Other commonly confused verb tenses
- What’s the past tense of spread?
- What’s the past tense of lead?
- What’s the past tense of choose?
- What’s the past tense of fly?
- What’s the past tense of lay
- What’s the past tense of drive?
- What’s the past tense of draw?
Learn more about verbs
Sources
- Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of wake.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/throw. Accessed 6 March, 2023.
- Definition of wake from the Collins English Dictionary
