7.65 use of passives to express general beliefs

If you want to indicate or imply that something is an opinion which is held by an unspecified group of people, you can use a passive form of a reporting verb with 'it' as the impersonal subject.

• It is assumed that the government will remain in power.
• In former times it was believed that all enlarged tonsils should be removed.
• It is now believed that foreign languages are most easily taught to young children.
• It was said that he could speak their language.

Here is a list of reporting verbs which are used in the passive with 'it' as their subject:

• accept, acknowledge, admit, agree, allege, announce, argue, assert, assume, believe, claim, comment, concede, conclude, confirm, consider, decide, decree, discover, estimate, expect, explain, fear, feel, find, foresee, forget, guarantee, hold, hope, imply, know, mention, note, notice, object, observe, predict, propose, realize, recall, reckon, recommend, record, remember, report, request, reveal, rule, rumour, say, state, stipulate, suggest, suppose, think, understand

This structure has much in common with a phase structure using a passive reporting verb and a 'to'-infinitive clause. In the phase structure, the main person or thing involved in the reported opinion is put as the subject of the reporting verb.

• Intelligence is assumed to be important.
• He is said to have died a natural death.
• He is believed to have fled to France.

Note that the 'to'-infinitive is most commonly 'be' or 'have', or a perfect infinitive.

Here is a list of reporting verbs, from the list above, which are also used in the phase structure:

• agree, allege, assume, believe, claim, consider, discover, estimate, expect, feel, find, guarantee, hold, know, observe, predict, reckon, report, rumour, say, think, understand