It is said
that she...
She is believed to ...
When we talk about what other people say, believe, think ...etc we can use these two structures.
Study these examples:
Active: People say that Michael is in love with Mary.
This sentence has two
possible passive sentences
It is said that
Michael is in love with Mary
Michael is said to be
in love with Mary
Let's have a look at the structure of both passives . In the active sentence we have : People say...,where "say" is a Present Simple , therefore in the passive sentence we use the Present Simple passive : is said. In the active sentence , we have : Michael is in... where again "is " is a present simple, not continuous, therefore in the second passive sentence, the infinitive is its simple form : to be
Let's study another example:
People
said
that the wanted man is living
in Madrid
Passive: It was said
that the wanted man was living in Madrid
The wanted man was said
to be living
in Madrid
said= was said is living= be living
People
think
that Michael scored
two goals in the last match
Passive: It is thought
that Michael
scored
two goals in the last match
Michael is thought
to have scored
two goals in the last match
These passive forms can be used in a formal style and with verbs such as:
| say
think believe
consider understand
know report expect allege claim acknowledge |
