Rumour Has It
I can relay an unverified story without turning it into established fact.
Try the activities, then check your answers.
Try the activities, then check your answers.
Choose a short recording.
Your situation
A fictional neighbourhood newsletter receives a note claiming that an old workshop will reopen. Another message says the owner sold the building last year. Neither message includes documents. The editor wants to describe the claims, their relative timing and the lack of verification without making the newsletter sound more certain than its sources.
Read the situation transcript
A fictional neighbourhood newsletter receives a note claiming that an old workshop will reopen. Another message says the owner sold the building last year. Neither message includes documents. The editor wants to describe the claims, their relative timing and the lack of verification without making the newsletter sound more certain than its sources.
Can passive reporting language make these claims verified?
Compare your idea
No. It can attribute or distance the claims, but evidence must be checked separately.
How it works
Is said to and is reported to let a writer put the claimed subject first while keeping attribution. Is reported to have sold marks a sale earlier than the present report. Is expected to reopen presents an expectation, not a confirmed reopening.
A responsible summary names the available source and states important limitations. Vague reporting passives can obscure who is claiming what. Keep attribution visible rather than using a formal tone as a substitute for evidence.
Present/future claim: is said/expected to + base. Earlier claim: is reported to have + participle.
Original relationship
The workshop is said to be reopening.
This attributes the reopening claim.
Alternative construction
The owner is reported to have sold the building last year.
This marks the claimed earlier sale.
Hear the examples
The workshop is said to be reopening.
This attributes the reopening claim.
The owner is reported to have sold the building last year.
This marks the claimed earlier sale.
The building is reported to have been sold.
This makes the building the subject of the earlier passive event.
Neither claim has been verified by the editor.
This states the evidence limit.
One mistake worth avoiding
Instead of: The building is reported to have been sold, so the sale is confirmed.
Say: The building is reported to have been sold, but the editor has not verified the claim.
Attribution and confirmation are different statuses.
You say
Hear the prompt, answer aloud, then deliberately reveal or hear one possible model. Check it and retry with a changed detail.
Your turn 1
Report the reopening claim without endorsing it as fact.
Compare a possible model
Reveal the model text
The workshop is said to be reopening, but we have not verified that claim.
Check yourself: Make the evidence status explicit.
Retry with one detail of your own. Other wording is welcome when it meets this check.
Your turn 2
Put the building first in the earlier-sale report.
Compare a possible model
Reveal the model text
The building is reported to have been sold last year.
Check yourself: Preserve the earlier passive event.
Retry with one detail of your own. Other wording is welcome when it meets this check.
Your turn 3
Write a spoken editorial summary of both claims and the limit.
Compare a possible model
Reveal the model text
One message says the workshop will reopen; another reports that the building was sold last year. Neither claim has been verified.
Check yourself: Do not invent a contradiction that the supplied facts do not establish.
Retry with one detail of your own. Other wording is welcome when it meets this check.
Two guided self-checks
Say or write your answer before opening a model.
Self-check 1
Does a past sale necessarily rule out a future reopening?
Compare a model and explanation
No. The two claims could both be true; further facts are needed.
Do not add an assumption about the new owner’s plans.
Self-check 2
Transform “A message reports that the owner sold the building last year.”
Compare a model and explanation
The owner is reported to have sold the building last year.
The perfect infinitive preserves the earlier event.
Check your understanding
Choose one answer to each question, then check your answers. One of the ten questions is listening.
Automatic scoring needs JavaScript. Use the answer key after attempting all ten questions.
Answer key with explanations
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The owner is reported ___ the building last year.
to have sold: The perfect infinitive marks the earlier sale.
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The building is reported to have ___ sold.
been: The building receives the earlier action, so use have been sold.
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Does “is said to” make a claim independently verified?
No: The expression attributes a claim rather than validating it.
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Which summary preserves the evidence limit?
The reopening is reported, but not verified.: The correct answer separates the report from its verification status.
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Do the sale and reopening claims necessarily contradict each other?
No: A building can be sold and later reopened; more facts would be needed to establish conflict.
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Correct “The owner is said to have sell it.”
The owner is said to have sold it.: Use sold after have in the perfect infinitive.
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What can vague passive reporting hide?
Who made the claim: Without an explicit source, readers may not know whose report supports the statement.
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Has the editor verified the sale?
No: The final clause explicitly states that the claim is unverified.
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Which wording is least likely to inflate certainty?
A message reports that the building was sold; we have not checked the documents.: The correct answer names the type of source and the limitation.
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What is the central skill?
Preserving attribution, time and uncertainty together: An accurate report must keep all three dimensions intact.
Take it with you
I can relay an unverified story without turning it into established fact.