Passive Voice

Question

Hi,The correct answer for this sentence-"They report that over 6000 people were killed in the tsunami"- rewritten in the passive voice is; "over 6000 people are reported to have been killed in the tsunami".Why? I understand that the first part is simple present, and therefor "are reported" is correct, but the second part in the original sentence is simple past, so why it's been done as "have been killed" ? and why "are reported to be killed" is also wrong?Thank you,Osama

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

osama91They report that over 6000 people were killed in the tsunami

They report [ something ].

becomes

[ something ] is reported by them.

So you might say that this is the passive version:

[That over 6000 people were killed in the tsunami] is reported by them.

But when the subject is so long, and especially when it's a that-clause, we substitute "it" and move the clause to the end, like this:

[It] is reported by them [that over 6000 people were killed in the tsunami].

You might remove "by them" if it's not important to what you want to say:

It is reported that over 6000 people were killed in the tsunami.

Notice that you need not change anything within the that-clause. That part stays the same.
_________

You can move "it is reported" into the that-clause, however, but then you have to change a few things.

Over 6000 people (it is reported) were killed in the tsunami.

becomes

Over 6000 people are reported to have been killed in the tsunami.

The infinitive is 'to have been' to indicate that the killing occurred before the reporting. The tsunami had already happened, and the people had already been killed before the report was made.

'to be killed' works by itself because it just describes what state the people are in now.

Over 6000 people are reported to be killed. ~ Over 6000 people are reported dead.

But 'tsunami' portrays an event in time, so 'reported to be killed in the tsunami' doesn't work — certainly not as well in any case. The tsunami acted upon the people to cause them to die; you need 'to have been killed' to show that.

Another way of saying it is that you create an inconsistency if you mix 'being' with 'becoming' ('is [a certain way]' vs 'became [a certain way]').

is happy / became happy ~ reported to be happy / reported to have become happy
is warm / became warm ~ reported to be warm / reported to have become warm
is frozen / became frozen ~ reported to be frozen / reported to have become frozen

But 'to become frozen' = 'to freeze', so

is frozen / froze ~ reported to be frozen / reported to have frozen

The verb 'kill' is not exactly the same, but it's similar.
'is killed' > 'reported to be killed' ('reported to be dead')
'was killed' > 'reported to have been killed' ('reported to have become dead')

CJ

Osama91 · Answer

Wow! Thanks, CJ.

Passive Voice

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