I know the difference between the verbs to raise and to rise, but is there any difference between their corresponding nouns raise and rise?
For example, are the two sentences
There was a gradual raise in the employment rate as the economy began to recover.
There was a gradual rise in the employment rate as the economy began to recover.
both correct and do they have the same meaning?
The sentence is from an exercise where given a sentence and a word you have to complete another sentence so that it has similar meaning. The original sentence is:
The employment rate rose gradually as the economy began to recover.
The word to use is gradual and the sentence to complete is:
There ……….. the employment rate as the economy began to recover.
So technically the solution with rise is the correct solution, but I was wondering if using raise changes the meaning.
Best Answer
A "rise" is an increase in number, size, amount, or degree.
A "raise" is an act of increasing something.
Rises can happen naturally, or incrementally, such as a rise in temperature or a rise in unemployment. Raises are deliberate increases, such as raising someone's salary or raising an imposed limit.
If you look at the dictionary definition for raise as a noun you will see the definitions are all deliberate things:
In your example of unemployment rates, "rise" would be the correct noun. The rates of unemployment have not been deliberately raised - the rise has just been observed.
It should be added that "rise" is sometimes used to describe an increase in pay, which as an intentional act by an employer does seem to be something of an exception to what I've just said. This ngram shows that "pay raise" is used at least twice as much as "pay rise", still it is idiomatic. Still, as verbs the distinction is very clear and the link between usage of the verbs and the nouns is undeniable.