Past tense of drive
irregular verb
The past tense of drive is drove. The past participle is driven.
Forms of drive
| Base form (V1) | drive /dɹaɪv/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | drove /dɹəʊv/ |
| Past participle (V3) | driven /ˈdɹɪvn̩/ |
| Present participle | driving /ˈdɹaɪvɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | drives /dɹaɪvz/ |
Less standard forms: driv (dialectal), druv (dialectal).
Drove and driven in a sentence
- My cousin drove me to the airport.
- The hunting dog drove the birds out of the tall grass.
- My grandfather worked in a mill. He operated machinery, did maintenance, and drove forklifts.From the entry mill
- He drove the heel of his hand into the man's nose.From the entry heel
- He claimed to be broke but he always drove that ridiculous boat.From the entry boat
Meaning of drive
- verb To operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).
- verb To travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.
- verb To convey (a person, etc.) in a wheeled motorized vehicle.
Verbs like drive
Questions about the past tense of drive
- What is the past tense of drive?
- The past tense of drive is drove.
- What is the past participle of drive?
- The past participle of drive is driven.
- Is drive a regular or irregular verb?
- Drive is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
- Is driv correct?
- driv is marked dialectal in Wiktionary. The usual past tense of drive is drove.
- Is druv correct?
- druv is marked dialectal in Wiktionary. The usual past tense of drive is drove.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: drive (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “Past tense of drive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/drive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.