Content tagged with "reporting verbs"

Some reporting verbs can be made impersonal with the personal pronoun it and the passive voice when the agent (the doer) of the action is unimportant, unknown or obvious.

subject + passive reporting verb + to-infinitive (perfect or perfect continuous)

If the reported event happens before the reporting, we use perfect or perfect continuous infinitives, depending on whether the verb in the reported clause was simple or continuous.

If the reporting happens in the present and the reported event in the past:

verb + object + to-infinitive

verb + that-clause with should + infinitive