The verb 'ride'

Question

I have trouble putting a sentence right and it regards the verb 'ride'. There's a picture showing a father rides a bike with his son sitting behind. I meant to say the sentence 'My dad rides me to school every day', but it just doesn't sound right. However, we can say 'My dad drives me to school every day', right? I need help with these two verbs.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

If it is a bicycle, 'drives' is wrong; yet 'rides' is too vague (or too sadistic). I think you will have to spell it out:

My dad gives me a ride on his bicycle to school every day.

KrisBlueNZ · Answer

Yes, that's a good question.
When you RIDE something, that literally means you ride ON it.
RIDE a bicycle, RIDE a horse.
When you DRIVE something, it can mean that you TOOK it in a car.
DRIVE in this sense specifically refers to a car or a motor vehicle.
If you drive a ship or an aeroplane, you PILOT it.
If you drive a bicycle or motorbike, you RIDE it.
So, you can DRIVE your son to school (in your car).
You can also DRIVE your laundry to the laundromat (in your car).
Also, confusingly, you can go for a RIDE, IN a car.
But you can't RIDE a car - that would imply you're sitting on the roof!

But you can (and do) RIDE a train, or a bus. This is because you aren't in the driver's seat, so you can't say you're DRIVING the train or bus.

Finally, you don't DRIVE a bicycle or motorcycle. If you said that, people would know what you mean, but it's not idiomatic to a native English speaker.

For your sentence, I would say "My dad TAKES me to school ON HIS BIKE", or "gives me a ride" or "gives me a lift".
Welcome to the complexities and subtleties of the English language, you lucky person :-)

The verb 'ride'

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