Impersonal Passive – Usage

To express other people’s opinions you can use two passive structures:

  • with that-clause: It is said that…
    It is said that the Minister will resign next week.
  • with the infinitive: Something/someone is said to…
    The Minister is said to resign next week.

These are formal structures. By reporting someone else’s words the speaker distances themselves from the words and makes it clear that these are only heard/found/discovered rumours/announcements/beliefs.

You can use a variety of reporting verbs, e.g. : say, believe, think, claim, suspect, estimate, report, rumour.