What Reporting Passives Do

When we report what people generally say, think, or believe — especially when the source is vague ("people," "experts," "the media") — English lets us flip the sentence into a passive structure so we don't have to name who said it. This is extremely common in news, academic writing, and formal speech.

Compare these two versions of the same idea:

People say that the company is in trouble. It is said that the company is in trouble.

Both mean the same thing, but the passive version sounds more formal and impersonal. There are actually two passive patterns you need to know, and mixing them up is the single biggest mistake at this level.

The Two Patterns

Pattern 1 — "It" as subject:

It + passive reporting verb + that-clause It is believed that the president will resign.

Pattern 2 — Person as subject:

Person + passive reporting verb + to-infinitive The president is believed to resign. ❌ The president is believed to be planning to resign. ✅

Notice the trap in Pattern 2. You can't just paste the original verb in its old tense after "is believed." You need the right infinitive form to reflect the time relationship.

Here's how the infinitive changes depending on timing:

• Same time as the reporting: He is said to live in Berlin. (= People say he lives in Berlin — now.)
• Earlier than the reporting: He is said to have lived in Berlin. (= People say he lived there — before now.)
• Action in progress: She is believed to be working on a new book. (= right now, ongoing.)

Worked Examples

Imagine a news story: "Experts think the painting is a forgery."

✅ It is thought that the painting is a forgery. ✅ The painting is thought to be a forgery. ❌ The painting is thought that is a forgery. — You can't mash the two patterns together.

Now imagine: "Journalists reported that the minister had accepted bribes."

✅ It was reported that the minister had accepted bribes. ✅ The minister was reported to have accepted bribes. — "to have accepted" because the bribe-taking happened before the reporting. ❌ The minister was reported to accept bribes. — This wrongly suggests an ongoing habit at the time of reporting, not a completed past event.

Which Verbs Work Here?

Not every reporting verb fits neatly into both patterns. The most common ones are: say, think, believe, know, report, consider, expect, understand, claim, allege, assume, suppose.

You'll notice these are all verbs about opinions, beliefs, or public statements — not commands or suggestions. You wouldn't normally write "It is recommended to be a good idea"; that verb follows different rules.

A useful test: if you can naturally write "People [verb] that …", the passive version with it will almost certainly work.

The Mistake That Catches Everyone

B1–B2 learners overwhelmingly make one error: using the wrong infinitive form in Pattern 2. They write the simple infinitive when they need the perfect infinitive, or vice versa.

The fix is mechanical. Ask yourself: Did the reported action happen before the moment of reporting?

• Yes → use "to have + past participle." She is known to have donated millions. (The donations already happened.)

• No, it's happening around the same time → use the simple or continuous infinitive. He is understood to be negotiating a new contract. (Negotiations are ongoing now.)

Get this one distinction right and you'll handle reporting passives accurately almost every time. When in doubt, Pattern 1 (It is said that …) is always the safer choice — it lets you keep the original verb tenses intact inside the that-clause, so there's less to transform and less to get wrong.