wake up — make someone aware
phrasal verbB2IELTS 5+neutraloccasional
To make someone realize or notice something, especially something important.
Say it like a native
Textbook The disaster compelled people to recognise the danger.
Native The disaster woke people up to the danger.
'Wake up to' is the idiomatic way to say people finally became aware; the formal version is flat.
Pattern: wake (someone) up (transitive)
In use
- The news report woke people up to the dangers of air pollution.communication
- Traveling abroad can wake you up to different cultures and ways of thinking.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ The crisis woke them up the risks.
✓ The crisis woke them up to the risks.
'Wake someone up TO' something — don't drop 'to'.
Common collocations
wake up + to— to the truth, to reality, to the dangers, the public
Don't confuse it
Here, 'wake up' is about understanding, not about sleep.
Related
- wake up (stop sleeping) — Another meaning of 'wake up' is 'stop sleeping'; compare the examples to keep the meanings separate.