Which to use
“drive” and “driven” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #764
- “drive” frequency rank
- #2,787
- “driven” frequency rank
- 3551
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drive | driven |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To operate a vehicle: | past participle of drive |
Where the eye mixes drive and driven
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between drive and driven
A purely visual mix-up. drive (/dɹaɪv/) and driven (/ˈdɹɪvn̩/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “drive” sits inside “driven”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drive is recorded at frequency rank #764, classified as averb, pronounced /dɹaɪv/. driven is at rank #2,787, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdɹɪvn̩/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 3551, this pair ranks #521,763 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of drive vs driven
Shared letters: deirv. Private to "drive": -. Private to "driven": n.
"drive" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "driven" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "drive" and "driven" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "drive" vs "driven" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "drive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "driven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #521,763 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drive" and "driven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drive vs Druze". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #521,763 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.