Passive Voice (Impersonal & Personal)
Hi, I have a doubt, my teacher explain about personal and impersonal passive voice, but when she did the exercises I didnt understand. The example in the book is:
Active: Peolpe say that he escaped to brazil
Passive: It is said that he escaped to Brazil / He is said to have escaped to Brazil
Exercise: (A) They say he is working on a new software package.
(P) It is said that he is working on a new software package. / He is said to be working on a new software package.
The first sentence is clear because it keeps the tense of the verb but the in the second how I can know when i have to use the verb have or another verb... 
Thanks
1 Answer
The perfect tense was used when the past tense was needed in the impersonal, passive sentence that used the object as the subject of the passive sentence (not with the it is said construction that used the simple past tense).
It did not occur in the 2nd example because both the active and impersonal, passives were in present tense.
(A) People say that she mistreated her children.
(P) It is said that she mistreated her children. (simple past)
She is said to have mistreated her children. (compound past)
If you wished to make her the agent and the children the object, then:
(A) People say that her children were mistreated by her.
(P) It is said that her children were mistreated by her. (simple past)
Her children are said to have been mistreated by her. (compound past)
