TOEIC Link Part 5: raise versus rise

Raise and rise both describe upward movement, but they belong to opposite grammatical families, and that difference is exactly what Part 5 tests. Raise is transitive: it always acts on an object — you raise something. Rise is intransitive: it never takes an object — something rises by itself. Because business passages constantly talk about prices, salaries, temperatures, and revenues going up, the test can offer both words and trust the careless reader to pick by meaning instead of by sentence structure. For another transitive-versus-intransitive trap built on the very same logic, see lay versus lie.

The core rule: does the verb act on an object?

• raise (transitive: raise / raised / raised) = to move something up, or to increase something. It needs a direct object: The company raised salaries by three percent.
• rise (intransitive: rise / rose / risen) = to go up on its own. It takes no object: Salaries rose by three percent.

The single most reliable test: look at what comes right after the verb. If there is a noun being lifted or increased — raise prices, raise the issue, raise a question — you need raise. If the subject simply moves up by itself with nothing receiving the action — prices rise, the sun rises, costs rose — you need rise.

Why Part 5 likes this pair

The two verbs describe the same direction, so meaning alone will not save you — only the grammar will. Part 5 sentences are written so that the structure points clearly to one answer while the meaning tempts you toward the other.

Management decided to raise the price of the premium plan.

Here the price is the object being acted on, so the transitive raise is correct. Substitute rise and the sentence breaks, because rise cannot take the price as an object.

The price of the premium plan rose sharply last quarter.

Here the price is the subject doing the action, and nothing follows the verb as an object, so the intransitive rose fits. There is no one lifting the price in the sentence; it simply went up.

Spotting the clue in the structure

Ask one question: is there a noun receiving the action right after the verb?

• A noun being lifted or increased follows → choose raise (raise funds, raise awareness, raise the bar).
• The subject goes up and nothing follows the verb → choose rise (temperatures rise, the audience rose, doubts rose).

A quick memory hook: raise is the longer word, and it needs the longer sentence — one with an object for it to act on. Rise is shorter and stands alone, just as it stands in a sentence without any object.

Watch the past tenses

The forms cause as much trouble as the meanings, because they look nothing alike:

• raise → raised → raised (regular, with -ed)
• rise → rose → risen (irregular)

Part 5 may test the past form directly: Costs have risen, so management raised prices in response. The intransitive cost rose / has risen on its own; the people then raised the price as a deliberate act. For another verb whose irregular forms get tested, see lay versus lie, and for a meaning-based confusion that also turns on careful reading, see continual versus continuous.

Quick self-check

Choose the right word:

1. Demand for the product has __ steadily since the launch. (risen — there is no object; demand goes up on its own, and the present perfect needs the past participle risen)
2. The board voted to __ the annual dividend. (raise — the annual dividend is the object being increased, so the transitive verb is required)

Takeaway

Raise is transitive and always needs an object you are lifting or increasing; rise is intransitive and the subject goes up by itself. Forget about which one "sounds right" and look instead at whether a noun follows the verb as its object. If something is receiving the action, use raise; if the subject simply moves up alone, use rise. Read the structure, not the meaning, and this pair stops being a trap.