raise/rise

Here's a classic pair of commonly confused verbs. Aren't you lucky that you'll never misuse them again?

The difference is really very simple. If you are bringing up something (a child) or physically picking something up, you are raising it. You can raise a curtain, raise a shade, raise a flag, and raise money.

If the object in question is capable of doing it itself, the correct usage is rise. You can rise for the national anthem at the same time the sun rises. I'm not sure why you would want to sing at dawn anyway, but that's your problem.

By the way, I know the sun doesn't technically rise. It's a static object around which we revolve. I remember my elementary school science. I'm just looking at it from a grammatical perspective.

If you're going to raise the issue, my irritation level will rise.