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I have been learning English and I got confused about the use of rise/raise. In the chapter dealing with the difference between rise and raise, it says "Our electricity rates have been rising at about 20 percent a year." is the answer for the question which I have to pick correct form of rise or raise.

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Our electricity rates have been _____ at about 20 percent a year

I know "have been raised" is the passive and "have been rising" is the present perfect progressive, and there is a difference in the meaning. i wonder if "have been raised" can be used in that sentence.

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"...have been rising at..." is correct. You cannot have "...have been raised at about 20 percent..." because you don't raise at a percentage, you raise by a percentage. "Rising," on the other hand, is more flexible, and can take either preposition.

"...have been raised by..." implies that you are talking about each increase as an isolated and "complete" event, because you are using the perfect (the "a year" indicates this has happened more than once, but they were separate, unrelated events). "...have been rising at/by..." indicates multiple increases, once per year, continuously over an extended period, and the use of "at" is a variation on price-per-unit "at" (e.g. "I'll buy 10 barrels at $5 per barrel"). That doesn't make sense when you're talking about a single increase.

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  • Thank you for the detailed explanation appreciate it!
    – pheno8
    Jun 30, 2020 at 7:40
  • @S.SHim10 If this has answered your question, remember to click the green tick and mark this answer as accepted.
    – James K
    Jun 30, 2020 at 22:32
  • @James K Ah. i didn't know that thank you! :)
    – pheno8
    Jul 1, 2020 at 3:44

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