awaken sb to/ from sth

Question

"The government should awaken the youth to/ from the dangers of drugs."

I came across the above sentence on another foreign language forum where people had been debating for days which preposition would be more appropriate in this context.

From my own experience, "awaken sb to sth" is a phrasal verb and thus is the correct one. This is also backed by a few dictionaries which define the combination as "to cause sb to become aware of sth" or "to make aware" and those fit the sentence meaning.

What do you all think?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Welcome to English Forums!

awaken someone to (make someone aware of) a danger (like drugs)
awaken someone from sleep, slumber, a trance, or, figuratively, from some comfortable but erroneous way of thinking.

to is the correct preposition for your sentence.

CJ

Zeio · Answer

Thanks for the warm welcome first.

This is what I think as well. The two examples above effectively show where the confusion could have come from. :-)

awaken sb to/ from sth

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