BBC Learning English Raise Rise Lyrics

Well, the basic meaning of the two verbs, 'raise' and 'rise', is almost the same - moving up, from a low position to a higher position, either physically or metaphorically.

The difference between them is a grammatical one. 'Raise' needs an object, and 'rise' cannot take an object. So, for example, I can say that I personally think that the government of this country needs to raise taxes (and 'taxes' is the object of the verb); another way I can say that is that I think that taxes need to rise. We are always talking about the need to raise standards (and 'standards' is the object of the verb) - another way of saying it is that standards need to rise.

Hope this helps!