Preparing for her presentation, Nok reads a market report aloud. 'It is said that Southeast Asian markets will grow significantly this year. The region is expected to attract more foreign investment, and several new regulations are believed to have influenced this trend.'

She frowns. 'Anna, why does this report never say who says or believes these things?' Anna smiles. 'That's a very advanced observation. In formal writing — reports, news, academic papers — writers often don't know or don't want to name the source. So we use passive patterns like it is said that, it is believed that, or X is expected to happen, X is thought to have happened.'

'So instead of People say the market will grow, we write It is said that the market will grow?' Nok asks. 'Exactly. And notice the passive infinitive and passive perfect infinitive too: the region is expected to attract investment (passive infinitive, present focus), and the regulations are believed to have influenced the trend (passive perfect infinitive, referring to something that already happened).'

Somsak, listening in, tries one. 'My report... the foundation is believed to have been inspected correctly?' 'Perfect,' says Anna. 'That's exactly the register your qualification report needs — objective, cautious, and professional.' 🔊