Which to use
“drives” and “drove” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,442
- “drives” frequency rank
- #3,876
- “drove” frequency rank
- 8318
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drives | drove |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of drive | A cattle drive or the herd being driven by it; thus, a number of cattle driven to market or new pastures. |
Where the eye mixes drives and drove
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. drives (/dɹaɪvz/) and drove (/dɹəʊv/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drives is recorded at frequency rank #4,442, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɹaɪvz/. drove is at rank #3,876, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɹəʊv/.
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 8318, this pair ranks #503,105 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of drives vs drove
Shared letters: derv. Private to "drives": is. Private to "drove": o.
"drives" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "drove" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV