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The Correct Form of Awake? 247 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Sentence Structure Drill 5, Problem 5. Which choice uses the correct form of "awake" for this sentence?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by firemen, who are especially skilled at

00:08

climbing the ladder of success.

00:15

What should replace the underlined portion below, if anything?

00:19

A loud fire truck rushed by the house at midnight, and the whole family awaked.

00:35

Consistency often relies on verb form, so even though all the answer choices here are

00:39

in some form of the past tense, they feature different forms of the verb "awake."

00:46

Our job is to sort through this identity crisis and find the form that fits the sentence.

00:51

We know that (B) is incorrect for sure because "awoken" can't exist without a helping verb

00:56

like "has" or "had."

00:58

We can say, "The dragon had awoken," or "The dragon has awoken," but "The dragon awoken,"

01:07

is gibberish.

01:08

The word "awoken" always needs a little help from its friends.

01:12

(D) isn't right because the helping verb "was" requires "awaking," the participle form of the verb.

01:18

"Was" and "awoke" don't make any sense together, at least, that's what their therapist told them.

01:23

(A) is incorrect because "awaked" is antiquated,

01:26

meaning that it's not a commonly used word anymore.

01:29

We've tried to make it popular again, but it feels like an uphill battle.

01:32

Sometimes you just can't fight the irresistible tide of public opinion.

01:36

So C has to be our correct answer.

01:39

"Awoke" is in the past tense and is consistent with the past tense verb "rushed," which appears

01:44

in the first part of the sentence.

01:45

Sure, "awaked" sounds more fun, but we wouldn't suggest testing the ire of those ACT test administrators.

01:52

You don't want to wake a sleeping dragon.

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