Dove or Dived

 

“DOVE” OR “DIVED”

The verb “dive” has both an irregular and regular form. You can use both and both are correct. Speakers in North America use dove while the British seem to prefer dived.

“Dived” is the traditional past tense and past participle of “to dive,” but “dove” has crept in over the last two centuries — particularly in the US. This is probably a result of the verb “to drive” (with its past tense “drove”) becoming more common.

Historically, dive was a weak verb, so its past tense was dived. Dove is a relative newcomer, probably formed by analogy with drive–drove or strive–strove.