were thought to be/have been?

Question

Please help me with this question:Rewrite the sentence with the same meaning: We thought you were serious when you said you were leaving.A. You were thought to be serious when you said you were leaving.B. You were thought to have been serious when you said you were leaving.I chose A, but the key said B. Please explain this to me.Thanks in advance.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Welcome to the Forums, Manh!

It's a matter of casting all the verbs in the past tense, since all the action in the model sentence is in the past.
We don't know that the person seems serious now, but he was (seemingly) serious in the past.

GPY · Answer

For me, it is not at all clear that (A) is incorrect. Does anyone else have a view on this?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

GPYFor me, it is not at all clear that (A) is incorrect. Does anyone else have a view on this?

I think that A is correct, but B gets closer to the model sentence.
The question is not very good.

GPY · Answer

AlpheccaStarsThe question is not very good.

I agree.

Clive · Answer

The question is not very good.

Indeed.
Neither A nor B includes the meaning of 'we'.

Manh Nguyen · Answer

I've just found this link http://www.grammaring.com/reporting-an-earlier-event-in-the-passive-voice
In my opinion, "we thought" and "you were serious" happened simultaneously, so A must be correct. If B was correct, the model sentence should be "we thought you had been serious when you said you were leaving". Am I right?

GPY · Answer

Manh NguyenI've just found this link http://www.grammaring.com/reporting-an-earlier-event-in-the-passive-voice In my opinion, "we thought" and "you were serious" happened simultaneously, so A must be correct. If B was correct, the model sentence should be "we thought you had been serious when you said you were leaving". Am I right?

The difficulty with this particular example is that, because of what is being described, it is natural to assume that the things happened simultaneously almost despite the choice of tense. A better example (at least for illustrating the principle, if not for creating elegant English) might be:

"We thought you were crying when you arrived" -> "You were thought to be crying when you arrived"
"We thought you had been crying when you arrived" -> "You were thought to have been crying when you arrived"

GPY · Answer

GPY"We thought you were crying when you arrived" -> "You were thought to be crying when you arrived""We thought you had been crying when you arrived" -> "You were thought to have been crying when you arrived"

I meant to add that, while these examples seem coherent, it seems to me that the following may also be possible:

"We thought you were crying when you arrived" -> "You were thought to have been crying when you arrived"

were thought to be/have been?

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