Advanced Passive Voice
Use the passive causative ("have/get something done") to say someone else performs an action for you, and the impersonal passive ("It is said/believed/known that…") to report information without naming who said it — both are staples of formal, academic, and journalistic English.
Formula
Examples
Usage
- •Expressing causation with nuanced meaning
- •Creating formal, objective discourse
- •Shifting responsibility or agency in communication
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Try 5 cards free — no signup →What is the passive causative (have/get something done)?
The passive causative — "have" or "get" + object + past participle — describes an action someone else performs for you, arranged or paid for: "She had her house repainted" means she arranged for painters to do it, not that she painted it herself.
"Get" is more informal and often implies more effort or difficulty in arranging it than "have": "I finally got my car fixed" vs the more neutral "I had my car fixed."
How does the impersonal reporting passive work?
Impersonal passive reporting — "It is said/believed/known/thought that…" — lets a writer state a claim without naming who's making it. It's common in academic and journalistic writing, where sourcing is either unclear or deliberately left vague.
The personal variant restructures the same idea around the subject: "It is said that he is brilliant" becomes "He is said to be brilliant." Both are correct — pick one structure and stay consistent within a sentence.
What's the difference between the get-passive and the be-passive?
The neutral be-passive ("She was promoted") is the default in formal and written English. The get-passive ("She got promoted") is more informal and tends to highlight the event itself, sometimes with a sense that it was unexpected, deserved, or dramatic — "He got fired" carries more emotional charge than "He was fired."
Comparison Table
| Form | Structure | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passive causative | have/get + object + past participle | Someone else performs the action for you | She had her house repainted. |
| Impersonal reporting passive | It is + said/believed/known + that… | Reports a claim without naming the source | It is thought that the economy will recover. |
| Personal reporting passive | Subject + is + said/believed + to (have been)… | Same claim, restructured around the subject | He is said to be the best surgeon in the country. |
| Get-passive | get + past participle | Informal, event-focused, often unexpected/dramatic | She got promoted last month. |
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When to Use Advanced Passive Voice
Arranging for someone else to do something
She had her house repainted last summer.
Reporting a claim without naming the source
It is thought that the economy will recover next year.
Distancing yourself from an assertion in academic or news writing
He is said to be the best surgeon in the country.
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More Examples
It is thought that the economy will recover next year.
"It is thought that" — impersonal passive for reporting
He is said to be the best surgeon in the country.
Personal passive construction: subject + passive + to-infinitive
The contract is reported to have been signed already.
Perfect infinitive in passive reporting structure
Common Mistakes
- ✗❌ "It is said that he is the best" vs ✓ "He is said to be the best" — both correct, but don't mix the two structures.
- ✗❌ "The contract is reported to signed" → ✓ "…is reported to have been signed" (need full passive infinitive: to have been + past participle).
- ✗❌ Confusing "have something done" (causative) with passive: "I had stolen my car" (someone stole it for you?) → ✓ "My car was stolen".
Tips
- ✓Impersonal passive (It is said / believed / known that...) is common in academic and journalistic writing.
- ✓Personal passive alternative: "People say he is brilliant" → "He is said to be brilliant".
Advanced Notes
Advanced passive structures are the workhorses of academic and journalistic English. The impersonal reporting passive ("It is claimed that…") lets writers distance themselves from an assertion without naming a source — familiar from scientific papers and news reporting. The personal variant ("She is believed to have left") is equally common and more elegant. The get-passive ("She got promoted") carries informal or event-focused nuance contrasting with the neutral be-passive. Passive infinitives ("The bill is expected to pass") and perfect passive infinitives ("He is reported to have resigned") compress complex temporal relationships into a single clause.
FAQ
"It is said that he is the best" vs "he is said to be the best" — which is right?
Both are correct — they're two structures for the same idea. "It is said that he is the best" uses the impersonal it-passive; "He is said to be the best" restructures around the subject with a to-infinitive. Just don't mix the two patterns in the same sentence.
Why is "the contract is reported to signed" wrong?
Because the passive infinitive needs a full form: "to have been" + past participle. The correct version is "The contract is reported to have been signed" — the perfect passive infinitive shows the signing happened before the reporting.
Is "I had stolen my car" the causative?
No — that means you stole your own car, which doesn't make sense as a causative. The causative needs the object + past participle pattern: "My car was stolen" (simple passive, someone else stole it) or, for something arranged on purpose, "I had my car serviced." Don't confuse the causative "have something done" with an ordinary active/passive sentence.
How is advanced passive different from basic passive voice?
Basic passive voice (be + past participle) simply reverses subject and object focus: "The cake was eaten." Advanced passive adds causative meaning ("have/get something done"), impersonal reporting ("It is said that…"), and passive infinitives ("expected to have been resolved") — structures that compress causation, sourcing, and time relationships that basic passive voice doesn't handle.
How is the passive causative different from causative "have" in general?
Causative "have" more broadly covers "have someone do something" (active causative, e.g. "I had the plumber fix the sink"), where the doer is named. The passive causative in this topic — "have/get something done" — drops the doer entirely and focuses on the result: "I had the sink fixed." Same underlying idea, different focus.
Practice
- 1.She her house repainted last summer.
- 2.It is that the economy will recover next year.
- 3.He is said be the best surgeon in the country.
- 4.The contract is reported have been signed already.
- 5.Will you the document translated?
Compare With
Other C2 Topics
Cleft Sentences
Used for splitting a clause to emphasise or focus on one key element
Subjunctive Mood
Expresses necessity, demands, or hypotheticals in formal registers
Future in the Past
Expresses what was planned or expected from an earlier point in the past
Fronting and Marked Themes
Used for moving elements to sentence-initial position for contrast or thematic emphasis
Information Packaging (Existential There, Extraposition)
Used for controlling where given and new information falls for maximum clarity
Stylistic Devices: Parallelism, Anaphora, Tricolon
Forms memorable rhythm using repeated structures, patterns, or word groups