[Grammar] To

[Maybo]

The tall cone-shaped roofs of chateau’s towers are thought by the French to resemble witches hats.

I don't understand the sentence structure. Why do we need "to" here?

 

[jutfrank]

This fairly common passive structure is: (BE) thought to-infinitive

The active form is:

The French think that the tall cone-shaped roofs of the chateau's towers resemble witches' hats.

The passive form works well to focus the sentence more upon the roofs, and less on the French.

 

[Phaedrus]

Technically, the active correlate of Those roofs are thought by the French to resemble witches' hats is The French think those roofs to resemble witches' hats.

 

[teechar]

I suppose Phaedrus meant to omit that "to" from the second sentence.

 

[Phaedrus]

Are you going to claim that the active version of He is said to be rich is *People say him to be rich?

What else would it be?

 

[Phaedrus]

I suppose Phaedrus meant to omit that "to" from the second sentence.

No, I meant to include it.

 

[jutfrank]

Technically, the active correlate of Those roofs are thought by the French to resemble witches' hats is The French think those roofs to resemble witches' hats.

Yes, technically, that's right.

 

[Phaedrus]

People say him to be rich is not a correct sentence in English. we need to say People say (that) he is rich.

I agree with you, but the syntax is what it is.

 

[Barb_D]

I feel like I fell through the looking glass here.

The French think snails are tasty.
Snails are thought [to be tasty] [ by the French].
You don't revert to: The French think snails to be tasty.

No one does that! You'll confuse learners if you suggest that third one is correct.

 

[Phaedrus]

What do you mean by that?

I mean that a grammatical passive structure is not necessarily a transform of a grammatical active structure, and vice versa.