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Meraki Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

"I have heard it told" structure?

Thanks for reading my question. Emotion: smile I already know "I have heard" is in the present perfect tense, and told would be the same I assume, but should it not be "I have heard that it was told"? "It told" sounds rather odd to me. Forgive me if this is an odd question; I wasn't taught English formally, so I may be totally wrong about all this.
  

Top answer

)" is a correct expression. )" etc.

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  • )" is a correct expression.
  • )" etc.
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5 Answers
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"I have heard it told (that ...)" is a correct expression. Various similar expressions can be constructed on the same pattern:

"I have heard it said (that ...)" (this is probably the most common one)
"I have seen it written (that ...)"
"I have seen it mentioned (that ...)"
etc.
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Ah, I see . . . so it can only be used with the that conjunction? I'm sorry, but what is told acting as here? It's not the action verb (if I am correct); is it an adjective to 'it'? I'm sorry, it's use is the only thing that confuses me still. Thank you for your answer though!
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Good question. It is a participle, of course. The pattern seems structurally similar to phrases like "I found it easy", where "easy" is clearly an adjective. However, "told" in your phrase doesn't seem particularly adjectival to me; it seems more like part of some kind of reduced passive verb construction, of which "it" is the (passive) subject. I am not very sure about this; perhaps someone else
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Thank you, I have a better understanding now. But I will wait and see if anyone else has another two cents. Emotion: smile
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merakiI have heard ...
It's a fairly common catenative structure.

see and hear are frequently used in such structures.

I have seen him do it.
I have heard her say it.

Equivalents:

I have seen this: He did it.
I have heard this: She said it.

The passive equivalents a
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