ESL Blogs

1. Personal Passive
When we put an object of an active sentence into passive, it becomes subject of the passive sentence.

Active sentence → The professor gave the students the books.
Passive sentence → The students were given the books.
We sometimes use a pronoun for the students or the books in its subject form (here: they).

Active sentence → The professor gave them the books.
Passive sentence → They were given the books.
We very often leave out the by-agent in the passive sentence (here: by the professor).

2. Impersonal Passive – It is said ...
The phrase It is said ... is an impersonal passive construction. We often use it in news.

Passive sentence 1 → It is said that children are afraid of ghosts.
Passive sentence 2 → Children are said to be afraid of ghosts.
The correct active sentence would be:

Active sentence → People say that children are afraid of ghosts.