Introduction Structure A Structure B Nominalisation Common Verbs Exercises

Introduction

In academic writing, journalism, and formal reports, English often avoids naming exactly who is making a claim. Instead of saying "People say that...", formal English prefers structures that sound objective, impersonal, and focused on the information itself rather than on who said it. This is called the impersonal passive, and it's one of the clearest markers of formal, academic register in English.

This page covers three connected structures that all express the same idea — that something is reported, believed, or assumed — in increasingly formal and nominalised ways.

Structure A

"It" + passive verb + "that" clause
It + be + past participle + that + clause

This is the most common way to report what an unspecified group of people say, think, or believe, without naming them directly.

Active: "People say the company plans to expand into three new countries."
Impersonal passive: "It is said that the company plans to expand into three new countries."
Active: "Experts believe the ancient ruins are over 3,000 years old."
Impersonal passive: "It is believed that the ancient ruins are over 3,000 years old."

Structure B

Subject + passive verb + to-infinitive
Subject + be + past participle + to-infinitive

This version moves the original subject of the "that clause" to the front of the sentence, making it the main subject — an even more compact, formal way to express the same idea.

"It is said that the company plans to expand into three new countries."
→ "The company is said to plan to expand into three new countries."
"It is believed that the ancient ruins are over 3,000 years old."
→ "The ancient ruins are believed to be over 3,000 years old."
Note on tense: when the "that clause" describes something that already happened before the reporting, use the perfect infinitive ("to have + past participle"):
"It is claimed that the painting was stolen decades ago."
→ "The painting is claimed to have been stolen decades ago."

Nominalisation: Turning the Verb into a Noun

A third, even more formal option turns the reporting verb itself into a noun (belief, claim, estimate, suggestion, report...), using "there is" or "one [noun] is."

"It is said that the company plans to expand into three new countries."
Nominalised: "There is a report that the company plans to expand into three new countries."
Nominalised: "One report is that the company plans to expand into three new countries."
"It is believed that the ancient ruins are over 3,000 years old."
Nominalised: "There is a belief that the ancient ruins are over 3,000 years old."
Nominalised: "One belief is that the ancient ruins are over 3,000 years old."

Common Verbs Used in Impersonal Passive Structures

agree · allege · announce · assume · believe · calculate · claim · consider · declare · discover · estimate · expect · find · know · mention · propose · recommend · rumour · show · suppose · suggest · understand

Not all of these have a clean matching noun form for nominalisation (e.g. "know" → "knowledge," but "it is known that" doesn't nominalise as naturally as "belief" or "claim" do) — this is normal, and students shouldn't force a nominalised form where it sounds unnatural. Structures A and B work with all of these verbs; nominalisation works best with the ones that have a clear, common noun form: belief, claim, estimate, suggestion, report, assumption, recommendation, rumour.

Once you can build these forms comfortably, the next skill is choosing between active, passive and nominalisation on purpose — and noticing when someone else has. See Strategic Voice for that C2-level layer.

Exercises

Transform each sentence into the three impersonal forms: the "It" passive, the Subject + to-infinitive passive, and two nominalised versions.

EXERCISE:

Original: "People allege the athlete used banned substances during the competition."

1. It:
2. The athlete:
3. There:
4. One: