Past tense: Is it “Dived” or “Dove”

[Eric Sedletzky]

It’s time to discuss this again.
Which one is it when talking about past tense, Dove or Dived.
Proper english would say dived, dove is a bird.
But then to use a vehicular reference, “I drove to the store” or “I drived to the store”? The second one doesn’t sound right. But “dived” does sound right, and so does “dove”...I guess.
I don’t know anymore, which way is it?
Does it matter?

 

[Scubagolf]

Either is correct. Use whichever one rolls better off your tongue.
Should you use 'dived' or 'dove'?

The words dived and dove are interchangeable as a past tense and past participle of the verb dive. Both verb inflections are used in American and British English; however, dove is an Americanism, and thus tends to be used more in American English.

 

[lowwall]

According to my 6-year-old daughter, it is "dive-ded".

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Hmmm, interesting. I've never heard a UK English speaker use dove as the past tense of dive, but this appears to be common for North American English speakers. Would be interesting to find out what term other English speaking nations use. For that matter, which way do people who use English as a second language roll?

 

[Dinorax]

Hmmm... well it depends on each individual I guess, coming from south east asia (where english is probably 2nd or 3rd or even 4th language), I would automatically use "dived".

Funny how the word "dove" pop-up as a bodywash brand and of course "a bird".

 

[Mike1967]

Does it matter?

No

 

[CamC]

It's probably just me, but since the last time this cropped up I've noticed that I tend to vary it myself without thinking, depending on whether I'm referring to one or more than one person. E.g. "I dived there yesterday" versus "we dove there yesterday". Except for the times when I do it the other way round. English, eh?

I'm Scottish, BTW.

 

[Pearlman]

A Dove is always a pigeon.. unless you want to create a flutter of confusion in the listeners mind...

P

 

[clownfishsydney]

For Australians, it is never dove, it is dived. Similarly, we do not say (for example), "the wetsuit fit me". We would say "the wetsuit fitted me". Lots of ones like that seen in US novels.

As to spelling, do not even get me onto the problem the US has with that!

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

As an American, I prefer to use a close translation to the French word for dive... I plunge, you plunge, we all plunged, I am going plunging, I kept my eye on my plunge buddy.

Raises a few eyebrows on the boat, sure, but no confusion for past tense.