wake up

Meaning

To stop sleeping and become conscious. It refers to the moment your eyes open and you are no longer asleep, which is different from physically leaving the bed. It can be used both when you wake yourself up and when you wake someone else up.

Examples

• I usually wake up at 6 AM, but I stay in bed for another ten minutes.

  I usually wake up at 6 AM, but I stay in bed for another ten minutes.

• Can you wake me up at 7:00 tomorrow morning?

  Can you wake me up at 7:00 tomorrow morning?

• The loud noise outside woke up the entire neighborhood.

  The loud noise outside woke up the entire neighborhood.

• I woke up with a terrible headache today.

  I woke up with a terrible headache today.

• She woke up early to catch the first train.

  She woke up early to catch the first train.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ I woke up at 7:00 and immediately went out of the bed.

  ✓ I woke up at 7:00 and immediately got up.

  Waking up only means opening your eyes and stopping sleeping. To describe physically leaving the bed, you must use the phrasal verb 'get up'.

• ✗ Please wake up me at 8.

  ✓ Please wake me up at 8.

  When using a pronoun (like me, him, her, us, them) with the phrasal verb 'wake up', the pronoun must go in the middle of the phrase.

Related Expressions

Practice

• I usually ___ at 6 AM, but I don't leave my bed until 6:30.

  💡 The action of stopping sleep.

  Show answer

  wake up

• Could you please ___ me up at 7:00 tomorrow?

  💡 The missing verb to complete the phrasal verb.

  Show answer

  wake