Passive with Reporting Verbs

Learn the verbs together with their past participles: believe → believed, consider → considered, think → thought, know → known, expect → expected; say → said, report → reported, claim → claimed, allege → alleged, understand → understood.

Believe and think convey a belief or opinion; consider often introduces an evaluation of someone or something. Know presents the content as a known fact. Expect in our examples expresses an expectation or prediction, not a result already achieved.

Say neutrally reports what people say; report conveys what is reported. Claim presents an assertion without guaranteeing its truth. Allege is particularly appropriate for unproven accusations of something wrong or illegal. Understood in reports can mean “according to available information”, rather than “comprehended”.

This is not a scale with exact percentages of certainty. The words partly overlap, and the choice depends on the source and intention. Without the necessary context, several options may be appropriate.

In the infinitive pattern, be agrees with the subject: one thing takes is, several take are. The participle does not change for number. With I, the form of be is am.

The passive reporting verb is followed by to + base form: to arrive, to work, to reduce. Before an adjective, a noun description or a place expression, use to be: to be useful, to be a copy, to be abroad. Do not add -s to the infinitive.

The same content can often begin with dummy It or with the person or thing being reported on. After It is reported that comes a complete clause with its own subject and verb. After The shop is reported comes an infinitive, not that it….

There is no need to invent a meaning difference between the two patterns. The main difference is in structure and focus. If the task does not restrict the opening, both versions can be correct.

Not all reporting verbs allow both patterns. For example, with announce and suggest in this kind of report, choose It + passive + that-clause; do not mechanically apply is believed to to every new verb.

The manager is expected to arrive means that other people expect the manager’s arrival. The manager is expecting to arrive means the manager expects their own arrival. The second sentence is grammatical: it is simply active and has a different meaning.

In expectations, a future action can use a simple infinitive: is expected to open tomorrow. Do not insert will after to. If you choose It is expected that…, the full subordinate clause can contain will.

Form a question by moving auxiliary be before the subject. Negation with be negates the reported expectation; it does not guarantee the opposite outcome. Detailed analysis of reporting time and complex infinitives is a separate skill.

Widely indicates that an opinion or information is widespread; generally can express a broadly accepted evaluation. Add them only when that scale is actually meant. One colleague’s opinion does not become widely believed.

The prevalence of a belief and its truth are different things. Likewise, known presents the content as known, but the grammatical form does not relieve the writer of a real report of responsibility for accuracy.

Controlled tasks may specify the adverb’s position. In your own answers, natural word order is acceptable if the meaning and requirements are preserved.

In news, a review or a workplace update, the passive helps keep the intended topic central. Do not force every sentence into the passive: identifying the source, stating your own lack of knowledge or describing the next step often works more naturally in the active.

Before answering, make three decisions: the precise status of the information, what to put first, and what continuation the verb requires. Then check be, the participle and the infinitive.

In open-ended tasks, compare your answer with the meaning, form and specific objective. The model shows one method, not every acceptable sentence. Self-checking helps spot errors, but is not independent confirmation of correctness.

Simple to be or to + base verb often expresses a state or habitual activity simultaneous with the belief. Do not automatically add have after was: was already supplies past reporting time.

To have been places the state earlier than the selected reference point. It changes meaning rather than universally correcting to be.

To have + V3 presents an action as earlier. Today’s report can concern yesterday; yesterday’s report can concern an event earlier still.

Use have after to, not has or had. A past participle follows: have taken, have written, have gone.

To be + -ing emphasises a process at the relevant time: is thought to be working concerns work now; was thought to be working concerns work then.

To have been + -ing combines anteriority and duration. The task context explicitly identifies the period. Distinguish have been waiting from have been tired: tired describes a state, waiting a process.

A simple infinitive does not mean “always now”. Expected often points it towards the future: a present expectation of a later event. With was expected, the future event is viewed from a past point.

Even a perfect infinitive can express completion by a future deadline, such as by Friday. Do not identify time from have alone; read the full context.

The it + passive verb + that pattern retains a full subordinate clause with its own subject and tense. When converting to subject + passive + infinitive, preserve both time references.

Not every verb allows both patterns. Said, believed, thought, reported and expected allow subject + to-infinitive. Do not mechanically transfer announced or suggested to that pattern; retain it ... that for them here.

Said, believed and alleged mark information as reported or believed true. Do not turn them into a guarantee of truth when paraphrasing. Known is stronger, so do not replace believed with it without justification.

Was believed does not itself mean “now disproved”. State any change from new evidence separately. Do not remove an important source such as by the inspectors or according to the report.

The subordinate clause’s subject becomes the subject of the whole sentence. Auxiliary be agrees with this new subject: he/she/it/economy → is; they/results/companies → are. The reporting verb stays in its past-participle form, followed by a to-infinitive.

This frame naturally makes the subject the sentence’s topic. Attention goes directly to the economy, results or suspects rather than to whoever holds the view.

It is a dummy grammatical subject here, with no independent reference. The reporting verb is passive, followed by a complete that-clause with its own subject and tense.

This frame can specify how widespread a view is through widely, generally or commonly. The usual position is between is/was and the participle: It is widely acknowledged that…. Add such an adverb only if the meaning really concerns a widespread view.

In reports or news, the passive is useful when the event or assessment matters most and the specific source is unknown, obvious or unimportant to that sentence. Omitting people or they can improve focus; it adds no evidence and does not make the claim more authoritative.

People say X is grammatical and often natural in conversation. It is also possible in formal writing, for example when a group’s opinion matters. If readers need to assess reliability, name the source in either an active or passive construction.

An active construction naming a specific source, such as an organisation, researchers or a report, also works well in formal writing. It immediately identifies who is responsible for the information. The source need not be authoritative: you can name it even when you doubt its information.

In friendly conversation, I heard, everyone thinks or my colleague says often sounds natural. The passive is also possible, but a long impersonal frame can sound more official. Choose a form suited to the situation.

When transforming a report, preserve facts, numbers, negation and certainty. Believed does not mean known, and alleged does not mean proven fact. Do not strengthen or weaken the original confidence level.

If the source matters to the reader, the passive need not hide it: add a by-phrase, as in it is estimated by economists that…. Losing an important source is a real loss of meaning, not simply a stylistic improvement.

In practice, audience and purpose guide the choice: a report to a manager, academic paragraph, news update and friendly chat call for different balances between these three forms.

When editing people think or they say, decide what matters most: naming the source, maintaining the topic about the subject, or presenting the report as a whole. The passive is an option, not a compulsory replacement in every formal text.