“The swimmer dove into the pool. (UK)”
Usage Entry 1056 / 1350 60-second read
Dived vs. Dove
Regular versus irregular past tense.
The comparisoni
“The swimmer dived into the pool. (UK) / dove (US casual)”
The ruleii
¶
UK: DIVED. US: DOVE also fine.
DIVED is the traditional past tense — still the standard in British English. DOVE emerged in American English by analogy with "drove" and is now fully accepted in US usage.
Memory aidiii
Remember it like this
UK stays with DIVED; US accepts both.