Verbformen
Grundform
/draɪv/
Past Simple
/droʊv/
Past Participle
/ˈdrɪvən/
Beispielsätze
Grundform · drive
- I drive my children to school every morning.
Past Simple · drove
- We drove along the coast for three hours.
- Did you drive it before lunch?
- I drove it as soon as I possibly could.
- We drove it together earlier this week.
Past Participle · driven
- He has driven this route hundreds of times.
- We have never driven anything quite like it.
- He has driven it many times before.
- I have already driven it more than once.
Häufige Kollokationen
drive a car
to operate a vehicle
drive someone crazy
to annoy someone a great deal
Wichtige Zeiten
| Simple Present | Simple Past | Present Perfect |
|---|---|---|
I drive he / she / it drives | I drove | I have driven |
| Present Continuous:I am driving · he / she / it is driving | ||
Grammatikleitfaden
The verb "drive" is fully irregular — all three principal parts are distinct: the base form "drive", the past simple "drove", and the past participle "driven". The ABC group contains many of the most common and important verbs in English, so learning them is essential for fluency.
Use the past simple "drove" for actions, events, or states that were completed at a definite point in the past. It is the main verb in the clause and needs no auxiliary: "We drove the whole project in three days." Typical time markers include yesterday, last week, ago, when, and at + a specific time. The past simple is the most frequently used past tense in spoken and written English.
The past participle "driven" is never used on its own as a main verb. It appears in: (1) the present perfect with have/has — "I have never driven anything like it before"; (2) the past perfect with had — "She had already driven before I arrived"; (3) passive voice with a form of be — "The final version was driven by the whole team." These three structures together cover the great majority of perfect and passive constructions in English.
The ABC group demands the most memorisation because each verb has three unique forms to learn. Focus first on the highest-frequency verbs: be (was/were/been), do (did/done), go (went/gone), know (knew/known), take (took/taken), see (saw/seen), give (gave/given), and write (wrote/written). Regular reading and listening is the most effective way to make ABC verb forms automatic — passive exposure reinforces the patterns far better than drills alone.
Kurzes Quiz
Welcher Satz ist richtig?
Konjugationsmuster
Alle drei Formen sind verschieden — diese Gruppe braucht am meisten Übung.
Verben mit demselben Muster