Past tenses

He strives (present)
He strove (in the past and has possibly stopped striving)
He has striven (in the past and is possibly still striving)

Never "he strived" without the "has" (false and ungrammatical past tense - but hey ho, false and ungrammatical constructions are proliferating, so it could be the definitive past tense this time next year)

PS and a third - "I had striven..."

Two different tenses - "I strove...", but "I have striven..."

I quite like sounding archaic at times - "five-and-twenty to the hour" for example, which was how it was said in my family, sounds that little bit more elegant than "twenty-five to..."

strove

What do I know!

Good suggestion, Alea. Or, 'tried hard'.

Though I worry a bit that using simple, frequently used, words instead of older, less familiar, words diminishes the richness and variety of the English language and makes older writings very inaccessible to people.

Not that I am in any way an advocate of convoluted language just for the sake of it. There's a fine line to be drawn somewhere.

I would use 'strove'

Just applying The Alea Law of Minimum Effort.

'Strove' sounds as if someone is 'try'ing even harder!

I sometimes think I must sound quite archaic at times, I said I was loath to do something to a crowd of friends and only one knew what it meant.

"He strove to overcome his disability"
Sounds OK to me , but "I have striven" .
Why not use "try"

I would never use 'strove', it doesn't sound right to me!

Maybe it's down to how clumsy it sounds to your ears. I use striven or strove, because they sound less hard.

Striven and strived may both be used as the past participle ?? he has strived/striven to achieve success. However, strived or strove are used for, e.g. she strived/strove against the odds to win the cup.

Or strove?

www.verbix.com/webverbix/English/strive.html

eek, I'm off to bed