What Is The Past Tense Of Drive?
The official past tense for drive is “drove” (not drived). It’s spelled D-R-O-V-E. Remember to write down the word in your list of irregular verbs.
Because it is an irregular verb, the past participle of drive is not the same as the past tense, “driven”. We have summarized all forms of this word in the following table:
| Form | Verb |
| Bare | drive |
| Present participle | driving |
| 3rd person singular | drives |
| Past | drove |
| Past participle | driven |
Click here for more details about “drive” and its pronunciation:
How Do You Spell Drive In Past Tense?
The present and past forms of the verb have only one syllable, so you don’t need to pay attention to the word stress. Yet, the past participle form has two syllables. Remember to put stress on the first syllable.
- Drive: The word pronunciation contains a diphthong sound (/aɪ/)made up of two vowel sounds combined and uttered inside the same syllable. Indeed, the /aɪ/ combines /ae/ and /i:/. Like vowels, the diphthongs are all made through the mouth and are voiced, which means that you vibrate your vocal cords to make the sound.
- Drove: The sound “әʊ ” is made up of the letters “ә” and “u:” or “ʊ” When making the /әʊ/ sound, your lips will open at the point of the /ə/ sound, close somewhat as you move toward the /u:/ or /ʊ/ sound, and then round slightly as you finish.
- Driven: the most important part of this word pronunciation is the vowel /ɪ/. This vowel is high-fronted. So, the tongue should be elevated and moved toward the front of your mouth while making the sound. Your lips ought to be relaxed and barely open. With your lips in this posture, vibrate your vocal cords to produce the /ɪ/.
Let’s check the IPA to know the correct pronunciation:
| Form Of Word | Pronunciation | |
| US | UK | |
| drive | /draɪv/ | /draɪv/ |
| drove | /drəʊv/ | /drəʊv/ |
| driven | /ˈdrɪvn/ | /ˈdrɪvn/ |
Definition And How To Use The Word
Although this common word has only two meanings. Please note them while learning English:
- To operate a vehicle so that it goes in a particular direction
- To control a vehicle (car, taxi, etc.) to go in a specific direction
- To take someone to a place in a taxi, car, etc.
- To make someone furious, mad, etc.
- To force someone to do or move in a specific way
- To operate a machine
- To influence or cause something to make progress
These are the most common meanings of this word. As mentioned above, the drive past tense verb is drove. Thus, if you want to express these ideas in the past, you must use “drove” instead of “drive”.
Moreover, here are some examples of how to use the word in a sentence:
- He drove to the cinema this evening.
- My father drove my sister to the airport last night when I was sleeping.
- The urge to live drove them on.
- Did you drive Stella home?
- You drove yourself too hard.
- Poverty drove the children to steal.
Some Exercises To Practice
His name is Benjamin Essek – The founder of Grammar Wiki. He is an English native speaker and has joined many English classes, learning communities to support other people with this common language as well.