Reported Passives

Below is a short passage on the Nacirema tribe. Read the passage and identify why the
writer has chosen to use the passive voice.

The Strangest of
Peoples

For decades, anthropologists have been studying strange and unusual people all over the
world. One of the strangest peoples of all is the Nacirema, a legendary tribe living in North
America. The territory of the Nacirema is between those of the Canadian Cree and the
Tarahumare of Mexico. These people are assumed to have come from somewhere east,
and anthropologists today still know very little about their origin. As a result, they are
thought to be descendants of certain European peoples.

Nacirema people spend a great deal of time on the appearance and health of their bodies.
The body is believed to be ugly and likely to decay. The only way to prevent this decay is
through participation in certain magical ceremonies. In every Nacirema house, there is a
special shrine room just for this purpose. Some Nacirema houses have more than one
shrine room. In fact, it is felt in Nacirema culture that the more shrine rooms a family has,
the richer it is. What is in the shrine room? The focal point is a box in the wall with a large
collection of magical potions, medicines and creams. Below the box is a small font from
which water flows. Every day, each member of the Nacirema family enters the shrine
room, bows to the chest, and receives magic, holy water from the fountain.
In this culture, the mouth is considered one of the most important parts of the body. The
Nacirema believe that the mouth has an important and supernatural effect on all social
relationships. The daily body ritual involves a very strange activity. It is reported that the
Nacirema actually insert into their mouths a stick on one end of which are animal hairs
covered with a magical paste. They then move these sticks back and forth in their mouths
in highly ritualized gestures.
Among the most important individuals in the culture are “holy-mouth-people.” In their
magic ceremonies, the holy-mouth-people place sharp instruments in the mouths of the
Naciremas. With these, they enlarge the holes in the teeth and place a supernatural
substance in each hole. It is claimed that this ceremony will prevent decay in the teeth and
help the Nacirema people to make friends and find spouses.
 Clearly, the Nacirema are a magic-inspired tribe. However, doesn’t this tribe reflect the
very aspects of one other culture? … The answer? Well, let’s reflect and see: the American
people. No need to worry; when you first started to read the text, you weren’t expected to
have guessed from the beginning.

I. Read the passage and underline the sentences with the passive verbs.
The sentences in the passage all have a passive structure used to show what people generally
think. Like the passive, this passive structure can be used for a number of reasons:
a. to show that we are more interested in the statement than who made it.
The economy is expected to improve this year. (We are interested in the economy.)
b. to make the statement more formal and impersonal.
It has been said that this government is doing bad job. (Much more formal than “People
have said that...”.)
c. the people who are referred to are not important or obvious.
It is now known that the prisoner escaped through a tunnel. (It is obvious that prison officers
know.)
The structure is used with verbs such as: say, think, believe, know, claim, expect, agree.

Reported Passive Structures are formed in two ways:

1. It + passive verb + that clause
2. Subject + passive verb + infinitive
The following verbs are commonly used in reported passive form:
acknowledge believe declare fear judge report suspect
allege claim estimate feel know say think
assume consider expect find prove suppose understand

Rewrite the sentences using “It passive” and “Subject Passive” structures.
*Be careful with the change in the tenses and time.
1. These people are assumed to have come from somewhere east.
___________________________________________________________________________________ .
2. They are thought to be descendants of certain European peoples.
___________________________________________________________________________________ .
3. The body is believed to be ugly and likely to decay.
__________________________________________________________________________________ .
4. It is felt in Nacirema culture that the more shrine rooms a family has, the richer it is.
___________________________________________________________________________________ .
5. The mouth is considered one of the most important parts of the body.
___________________________________________________________________________________ .
6. It is reported that the Nacirema actually insert into their mouths a stick on one end of which are animal
hairs covered with a magical paste.
___________________________________________________________________________________ .
7. It is claimed that this ceremony will prevent decay in the teeth and help the Nacirema people to make
friends and find spouses.

 To make it clear that an event happened before the time it was reported, we use:
SUBJECT + PASSIVE + PERFECT INFINITIVE
e.g. When you first started to read the text, you weren’t expected to have guessed from the beginning. (the
action of expecting and guessing didn’t happen within the same time frame, both were in the past, but there is
a time difference between them.
 To report on future events, we use:
SUBJECT + PASSIVE + INFINITIVE
e.g. Some anthropologists are expected to travel to the region in order to do more research in the following
months.
 To report events and actions that are in progress, we use:
SUBJECT + PASSIVE + CONTİNUOUS INFINITIVE
e.g. The anthropologists are believed to be preparing for their trip to the region.
 We also can also use infinitive or perfect infinitive in passive form.
SUBJECT + PASSIVE + PASSIVE INFINITIVE/PERFECT PASSIVE INFINITIVE
e.g. More research on the Nacirema culture is expected to be carried out when the anthropologists arrive in the
region.
e.g. The Pyramids are thought to have been built by aliens

Answer Key to the Task:

1. These people are assumed to have come from somewhere east.

It is assumed that these people came/have come from somewhere east.
2. They are thought to be descendants of certain European peoples.
It is thought that they are descendants of certain European peoples.
3. The body is believed to be ugly and likely to decay.
It is believed that the body is ugly and likely to decay.
4. It is felt in Nacirema culture that the more shrine rooms a family has, the richer it is.
The Nacirema people feel that the more shrine rooms a family has, the richer it is.
5. The mouth is considered one of the most important parts of the body.
The Nacirema people consider the mouth (to be) one of the most important parts of the body.
6. It is reported that the Nacirema actually insert into their mouths a stick on one end of which are
animal hairs covered with a magical paste.
The Nacirema people are reported to actually insert into their mouths a stick on one end of
which are animal hairs covered with a magical paste.
7. It is claimed that this ceremony will prevent decay in the teeth and help the Nacirema people to
make friends and find spouses.
 This ceremony is claimed to prevent decay in the teeth and help the Nacirema people to make
friends and find spouses.

By the way, who do you think are these Nacirema people? 😊