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This week's question comes from Hu Ke who would like to know the difference between the words 'rise' and 'raise'.

The main differences between these words are as follows:

1. Transitive vs intransitive

Raise is a transitive verb. When used in a sentence it is always followed by an object. For example:

BP will raise its petrol price by 10%.

Rise, on the other hand, is an intransitive verb and it cannot be followed by an object. For example:

Petrol prices will rise by 10%.

2. Regular vs irregular verb

Raise is a regular verb (raise, raised, raised), whereas rise is an irregular verb (rise, rose, risen).

3. Using rise and raise as nouns

In British English the word rise can be used to mean an increase in salary: a pay rise. In American English, people would call this a raise. For example:

Tom's boss refused to give him a rise (UK) / raise (US).

Listen to this week's audio programme for more example sentences.

Everyone is welcome to email their questions to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk.