The tax changes were said to help poorer people

[Indigo]

What is the correct personal passive form of the following sentences in the impersonal passive? a) or b)?

It was said that the tax changes helped poorer people.

a) The tax changes were said to help poorer people.
b) The tax changes were said to have helped poorer people.

It was believed that the company were about to announce redundancies.

a) The company were believed to be about to announce redundancies.
b) The company were believed to have been about to announce redundancies.

 

[Rover_KE]

Before we reply, please tell us the source of these sentences.

 

[jutfrank]

I'll try to give you a relatively simple answer. Consider the following original spoken sentence:

1) The tax changes help poor people.

This is present tense, to express a fact that is true at the time of speaking. Now we can report this speech in the passive voice like this:

1a) It was said that the tax changes help poor people.

This reporting sentence presents the speech as a past time event, though the fact itself is still true at the time of reporting. Now transform this into the following:

1b) The tax changes were said to help poor people.



Now consider a different original spoken sentence:

2) The tax changes helped poor people.

This is past tense, to express a fact that was true in the past. Now we can report this in the passive voice like this :

2a) It was said the the tax changes helped poor people.

Now transform that sentence, retaining the past meaning, like this:

2b) The tax changes were said to have helped poor people.

The 'have + v3' structure conveys that the 'helping' is in the past in relation to the time of the speech.

 

[emsr2d2]

Once you've provided the source, tell us which you think are correct and why. We don't like to simply hand out answers here.

 

[Indigo]

I found the sentences in exercise 4 on this website: http://random-idea-english.blogspot.com/2013/06/passive-reporting-structures.html

As @jutfrank wrote, we use 'to have been/helped' form of the personal passive when we want to refer to the past and we use 'to be/help' form when we refer to the present. Therefore, in reference to the original sentences, answers b) are correct and a) incorrect.