[Grammar] chase away VS drive away

[northpath]

Is there any difference in the usage of phrasal verbs ‘drive away’ and ‘chase away’ in those contexts:
Two countries have united to drive the enemy away.
We chased the elephants away by shooting into the air.

 

[emsr2d2]

In those contexts, no. There is a different usage of "drive away" which can't be replaced with "chase away". "I bought the car from a dealership and drove it away immediately".

 

[Skrej]

They seem interchangeable in these contexts, more so in the second one.

 

[northpath]

So, if I got you right, in the sentence
‘Two countries have united to drive the enemy away.’
the ‘drive away’ is more preferable, right?

 

[emsr2d2]

So, if I​'ve got [STRIKE]you[/STRIKE] this right, in the sentence ‘Two countries have united to drive the enemy away’, [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] ‘drive away’ is [STRIKE]more[/STRIKE] preferable, right?

See above.

"Drive away" is probably more natural when talking about a war situation, as you seem to be but, if you were talking about actual soldiers (or similar) physically in contact with the opposing soldiers and forcing them to retreat, "chase away" would be OK.

Note that we don't say "more preferable".