起こす

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 起こす is a transitive godan verb read おこす; it can mean waking someone or causing an event or change.
• Basic usage: It presents an agent or cause that makes a person wake up or makes an event such as an accident occur.
  • In 明日は六時に起こしてください。, the omitted object is the person to be woken at six; 小さな不注意が大きな事故を起こすことがあります。 says minor carelessness can cause a major accident.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Omitted object
  • In 六時に起こしてください, context supplies “me” as the person to wake, but that object is not stated in the Japanese sentence.
• 起こす and 起きる
  • 起こす is transitive: someone wakes a person or causes an event. 起きる(おきる) is intransitive: a person gets up or an event occurs.
• Cause construction
  • In 不注意が事故を起こす, が marks the cause and を marks the event it produces. 起こす itself is not restricted to accidents.