What is the impersonal passive?
The impersonal passive, it is said or somebody is said to do something, is a part of English grammar that we use when we want to say what other people believe, know, say or think about some given subjects or situations. We don’t mean a specified person or a specified group but we rather make a generalisation. Look at the sentence below:
- My neighbour, a woman who works in that shop and a man who I met on a bus think that the end of the world will never come.
Instead of such a long subject we can make a generalisation and say:
- People say that the end of the world will never come. (active voice)
or
- It is said that the end of the world will never come. (passive voice)
The reason of that seems to be obvious, it is much shorter. However, this form of passive voice is also preferred in formal language. We can also use the impersonal passive when we mean most people in general, when we believe that most people think the same way. For example:
- It is said that wars are unnecessary.
We also use this grammar when we don’t know or we don’t want to say who thinks something about somebody/something.
- Mark, it is said that you are a quite troublesome man.
I also think that this form of passive voice is widely used during gossiping.
- It is said that our boss has ten cars, a huge mansion and a palace in Hawaii.
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Whatever the reason of using this grammar is, it is good to know it since you can meet this construction, literally, everywhere. It is present in most texts and articles. You can hear that on the radio, TV news or podcasts and during various speeches or conversations as well. What’s more, not knowing this part of passive voice may lead to some misunderstanding, especially when it comes to the past reference.
If you are interested how to form the impersonal passive voice and what the rules are, check the next parts of this post.
How to form the impersonal passive?
There are two forms of the impersonal passive voice. The first form begins with such phrases as: it is said, it is known, it is reported etc.
- It is said that Brian lives in Berlin.
(it + be + past participle + (that) + subject + verb)
The second form is a little bit more complicated but I will show you why in the next sections. This form begins with a subject, i.e. a person or a thing that people talk about.
- Brian is said to live in Berlin.
(subject + be + past participle + infinitive)
Please note that when we talk here about a verb, it means a verb that takes different forms like third-person singular, past tense or past participle. However, when we talk about an infinitive here, we mean a verb that is in its basic form and preceded by ‘to’.
Summing up, both forms, it is said or somebody is said to, are used interchangeably. In order to use it properly you should be familiar with the basic forms of passive voice, the forms of the infinitive and tenses, of course.
Apart from the grammar stuff you also need some reporting verbs. The words like say or think are used most often, but other words might be very useful as well: believe, claim, consider, estimate, expect, know, report.
Let’s combine all these parts together and let’s learn how to form the impersonal passive in practice.
Impersonal passive with present reporting verbs
In this part we are going to deal with present reporting verbs. I am going to show you how to build the impersonal passive sentences with the meaning what people say, think or believe in general, at present or now.
Of course, I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t complicate a little bit. In this case we can have a reference to present and to the past as well. it means what people say, think or believe that happens in general, is happening now or happened in the past. Let’s move to practice.
I’d like to show you everything on the example of three sentences. The first sentence presents the active voice. Then I will change it into two forms of the impersonal passive.
Present reference
Here, we have present reporting verbs (say, think, believe) and the second part of the sentence refers to present. See the examples below:
- Active: People say that Carl works as a designer.
- Passive 1: It is said that Carl works as a designer. (In this example the verb ‘say’ changes into present passive voice – it is said – but the rest of the sentence remains unchanged.)
- Passive 2: Carl is said to work as a designer. (In this example we put the subject (somebody or something that people talk about) at the beginning of the sentence, then the present passive goes – is said – and then we should put the infinitive with ‘to’.
- Active: People think that Jeremy gambles in casino.
- Passive 1: It is thought that Jeremy gambles in casino.
- Passive 2: Jeremy is thought to gamble in casino.
- Active: People believe that the mayor doesn’t care about the environment.
- Passive 1: It is believed that the mayor doesn’t care about the environment.
- passive 2: The mayor is believed not to care about the environment. (Note that in the negative infinitive, ‘not’ goes before ‘to’.)
- Active: People claim that the police are doing little to stop crime in our city.
- Passive 1: It is claimed that the police are doing little to stop crime in our city.
- Passive 2: The police are claimed to be doing little to stop crime in our city. (If there are continuous tenses, they change into the continuous infinitive – to be doing.)
- Active: People expect that the conflict will end soon.
- Passive 1: It is expected that the conflict will end soon.
- Passive 2: The conflict is expected to end soon.
Past reference
Here we have present reporting verbs but the second part of the sentence refers to past. See the examples below:
- Active: People say that Margaret struggled with a serious disease.
- Passive 1: It is said that Margaret struggled with a serious disease.
- Passive 2: Margaret is said to have struggled with a serious disease. (In this case past simple changes into the perfect infinitive – to have done . Please note that it isn’t the Present Perfect tense but the perfect infinitive.)
- Active: People know that Alison has left the city.
- Passive 1: It is known that Alison has left the city.
- Passive 2: Alison is known to have left the city. (In this case the Present Perfect tense changes into the present infinitive.)
- Active: People report that he was taking part in the demonstration.
- Passive 1: It is reported that he was taking part in the demonstration.
- Passive 2: He is reported to have been taking part in the demonstration. (In this case the Past Continuous tense changes into the perfect continuous infinitive – to have been doing.)
- Active: People think that Steve didn’t obey the rules.
- Passive 1: It is thought that Steven didn’t obey the rules.
- Passive 2: Steven is thought not to have obeyed the rules.
Impersonal passive with past reporting verbs
In this part we are going to deal with past reporting verbs. When we use past reporting verbs it means that the whole sentence has the past reference. When a sentence begins with past reporting verbs like it was said, it was thought, it was believed, we can’t connect that with the present reference but purely and simply with the past reference.
Pay careful attention to the tenses and the way they change into particular infinitives. Let’s focus on the examples below.
- Active: People thought that Ben ran a risky business. (Look at the tenses, both verbs, thought and ran, are in the Past Simple tense. It means that at the time when people thought, at the same time Brian ran a risky business. Both activities were at the same time.)
- Passive 1: It was thought that Brian ran a risky business. (In this example the past reporting verb changes into the past passive voice – was thought – but the rest of the sentence remains unchanged.)
- Passive 2: Ben was thought to run a risky business. (The subject goes with the past passive voice and then we put the infinitive with ‘to”. Here the past reference in the first part of the sentence refers to the whole sentence. Both activities happened at the same time period.)
- Active: People said that Juan didn’t agree on new terms.
- Passive 1: It was said that Juan didn’t agree on new terms.
- Passive 2: Juan was said not to agree on new terms.
- Active: People believed that Josh had cooked the books. (Look at the tenses here. The first verb is in the Past Simple tense, whereas, the second one is in the Past Perfect tense. It means that Josh had cooked the books first and then after some time people found out about it. The difference in the tenses also must be marked in the impersonal passive.)
- Passive 1: It was believed that Josh had cooked the books.
- Passive 2: Josh was believed to have cooked the books. (As you can see in this example, we use the perfect infinitive to indicate that the fraud had happened earlier.)
- Active: People reported that the guard hadn’t followed the procedures.
- Passive 1: It was reported that the guard hadn’t followed the procedures.
- Passive 2: The guard was reported no to have followed the procedures.
Once again, see the difference:
- Active: People said Melisa taught Spanish.
- Passive 1: It was said that Melisa taught Spanish.
- Passive 2: Melisa was said to teach Spanish.
- People said Melisa had taught Spanish.
- It was said Melisa had taught Spanish.
- Melisa was said to have taught Spanish.
- Melisa was said to teach Spanish. (Both activities happened at the same period of time.)
- Melisa was said to have taught Spanish. (One activity had happened earlier that the other one.)
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I hope that all the information and the examples are helpful for you. I also hope that, step by step, you will get familiar with all these rules.
More impersonal passive examples
The impersonal passive examples with there is / are
- Active: People say that there are more opportunities today.
- Passive 1: It is said that there are more opportunities today.
- Passive 2: There are said to be more opportunities today.
- Active: People think there was a violent argument between the parties.
- Passive 1: It was thought that there was a violent argument between the parties.
- Passive 2: There was thought to be a violent argument between the parties.
The impersonal passive examples with two passive constructions in one sentence
- Active: They say that castle was bought by a mysterious millionaire.
- Passive 1: It is said that castle was bought by a mysterious millionaire.
- Passive 2: That castle is said to have been bought by a mysterious millionaire.
- Active: People said that the building was set on fire.
- Passive 1: It was said that the building was set on fire.
- Passive 2: The building was said to have been set on fire.
- Active: People know that Sara was convinced by Peter.
- Passive 1: It is known that Sara was convinced by Peter.
- Passive 2: Sara is known to have been convinced by Peter.
or
- Passive 2: Peter is known to have convinced Sara.
I think we have come to the end of this long lesson. I realise that going through the theory is not the most prefered way of learning. That’s why I hope that so many impersonal passive examples will help you to understand this complicated and intricate part of grammar.
Having analysed all the material and the examples here you can move on to the exercises which are enclosed below. There you can find more impersonal passive examples and you can check if you have already mastered this part of passive voice. Exercises are known to be one of the best ways to practise English!