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Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? Passive reporting verbs: is said to have done

This B2 ESL lesson plan teaches passive reporting verbs such as is said to have through the myth of George Washington's cherry tree.

Grammar
The person or thing + is / was + said, thought or known + to-infinitive, with to have + past participle for earlier actions (Young George is said to have chopped down a cherry tree.).
Topic
How Parson Weems's biography gave America the cherry tree, and what Washington's false teeth were really made of, with words such as debunk, fable and dentures.
Activities
An explainer to read, a museum visit and a teacher's voice memo to hear, self-checking drills, a myth-or-fact chat, arguments to sort and question boxes.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Warm-up: myths we grew up with

    • PictureUnlock
    • Spin the wheel and answerSpin the wheelUnlock
    • Study the words: myths and the truthVocabularyTry it
    • Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock

  2. Chapter 2Let's read: the boy who couldn't tell a lie

    • Look at the picture: a wagon full of booksPictureUnlock
    • Read Harper's explainer on The Why DeskArticleUnlock
    • Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
    • Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Match the paragraphs and the headingsMatchUnlock

  3. Chapter 3Let's listen: a hatchet in the gift shop

    • Listen to Harper and RichListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Listen to the Reader's Rebuttal: Georgia's voice memoListeningUnlock
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Grammar: he is said to have chopped it down

    • Study the scheme: he is said to have chopped it downGrammar schemeTry it
    • Choose the correct optionChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: use the words in bracketsFill in the gapsTry it
    • Fill in the table: say it the other wayFill in the tableUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: what does it mean?QuizUnlock
    • Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Let's talk: myth or fact?

    • Choose the right replies: help Liz with her myth-or-fact quizChatTry it
    • Sort the words into the correct columns: harm or help?Sort into columnsUnlock
    • Open a box and answer: myths and heroesOpen the boxUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Homework

    • Match the words and the meaningsMatchUnlock
    • Unscramble the wordsAnagramUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps with the lesson's wordsFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Find the matching pairs: words and meaningsMemory gameUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: new sentencesChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: use the words in bracketsFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: which sentence is correct?QuizUnlock
    • Put the words in the correct order: new sentencesUnjumbleUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: a myth-busting fact boxChoose the optionUnlock
    • Drag the words into the gaps: Harper answers GeorgiaDrag and dropUnlock

34 exercises in 6 chapters. Start a 7-day free trial to open all of them, copy any part into your own lessons, and teach the lesson live.

Vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • fable
  • hatchet
  • storyteller
  • bestseller
  • dentures
  • ivory
  • role model
  • honesty
  • hero

Grammar: passive reporting verbs: is said to have done

The personal passive reports what people say about someone or something and keeps a distance from the claim: He is said to have chopped down a cherry tree. The person or thing comes first, then be + said, thought, believed, known or reported + a to-infinitive. With a famous story nobody can verify, learners match the infinitive to the time of the action.

He is said to have chopped down a cherry tree.

Report what people say, think or know about someone, and keep your distance: the person or thing + be + said / thought / believed / known / reported + to-infinitive.

Choose the infinitive by time

The same time as the claim: to + base form (Ivory is known to stain easily.). In progress: to be + -ing. Earlier: to have + past participle (Young George is said to have chopped down a cherry tree.). Earlier and passive: to have been + past participle.

When did it happen? Choose the infinitive

The action is…FormExample
at the same time as the claimbe said to + base formIvory is known to stain easily.
in progress nowbe said to be + -ingThe museum is said to be planning a new tour.
before the claimbe said to have + past participleYoung George is said to have chopped down a cherry tree.
before the claim, and passivebe said to have been + past participleHis teeth are often thought to have been made of wood.

How to choose the infinitive

Compare the time of the action with the time of the claim. The same time: to + base form (is known to stain). In progress: to be + -ing. Earlier: to have + past participle (is said to have chopped). Earlier and passive: to have been + past participle (are thought to have been made). The verb be shows when people say it: is said (now), was said (then).

Be shows when people say it

Am, is and are report what people say now; was and were, what they said then: He is said to have told the truth against He was said to… The pattern works for every person: I am said to be, they are known to have sold.

PersonNow: am / is / areIn the past: was / were
II am said to be a good guide.I was said to be a good guide.
youYou are thought to be the expert.You were thought to be the expert.
heHe is said to have told the truth.He was said to have told the truth.
sheShe is known to have written a book.She was known to have written a book.
itIt is believed to have been made of ivory.It was believed to have been made of ivory.
weWe are said to be the oldest club in town.We were said to be the oldest club in town.
theyThey are known to have sold books.They were known to have sold books.

Questions, short answers and the negative

Questions put be first: Is he said to have chopped it down? – Yes, he is. What is Weems known to have done? For a negative, put not after be: Washington isn't known to have said those words.

QuestionAnswer
Is he said to have chopped it down?Yes, he is. / No, he isn't.
Were the teeth thought to be wooden?Yes, they were. / No, they weren't.
What is Weems known to have done?He is known to have sold books from a wagon.

It is said that… or He is said to…?

One claim, two shapes: It is said that he chopped down the tree and He is said to have chopped down the tree. That goes only with It; after the person, use to. The verbs are say, think, believe, know, report and consider.

It is said that… or He is said to…?

It is said that + a clause

  • It is said that he chopped down the tree.
  • It is thought that the teeth were made of wood.
  • It is known that ivory stains easily.

The person or thing + be said to…

  • He is said to have chopped down the tree.
  • The teeth are thought to have been made of wood.
  • Ivory is known to stain easily.

Which verbs? And where does not go?

Use the pattern with say, think, believe, know, report and consider. After the person or thing + be said, never add that: He is said to have chopped it (not: He is said that he chopped it). That goes only with It: It is said that he chopped it. For a negative, put not after be: Washington isn't known to have said those words.

Common mistakes

Four slips: the simple infinitive for the past (He is said to chop down a cherry tree when he was six), He is said that he…, -ing instead of to (are thought having been made) and to have be. After to have, use been, not be.

  • He is said to chop down a cherry tree when he was six.

    He is said to have chopped down a cherry tree when he was six.

    an earlier action: to have + past participle

  • He is said that he chopped down the tree.

    He is said to have chopped down the tree.

    after he is said, use to, never that (or say: It is said that he chopped…)

  • The teeth are thought having been made of wood.

    The teeth are thought to have been made of wood.

    use the to-infinitive, not -ing

  • They are believed to have be made of ivory.

    They are believed to have been made of ivory.

    to have + past participle: been, not be

At the house museum

  • Young George is said to have damaged his father's cherry tree.
  • Weems is known to have written to his publisher in January 1800.
  • The story is thought to have been invented by Weems.
  • His teeth are often said to have been made of wood. They weren't.
  • Ivory is known to stain easily.
  • Is Weems said to have heard the story from a lady?

More lessons on this grammar: Passive voice lessons and exercises · Reported speech lessons and exercises

Try the passive reporting verbs exercises

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What's in the lesson

  • 19 auto-checked exercises
  • 6 games
  • 1 article
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 2 audio clips
  • 2 pictures
  • 2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • report a claim about an earlier action: Young George is said to have chopped down a cherry tree.
  • use to have been + past participle for an earlier passive: His teeth are often thought to have been made of wood. They weren't.
  • choose the infinitive by time: Ivory is known to stain easily. The museum is said to be planning a new tour.
  • turn It is said that… into the personal form: It is thought that Weems invented the story. → Weems is thought to have invented the story.
  • ask and answer questions: Is he said to have chopped it down? – Yes, he is.

Lesson 16 closes News and truth, unit 4 of English B2.2 · Culture and Society. Lesson 14 reported claims with It is said that…; now the person or thing comes first, and the perfect infinitive students know from should have and must have (B2.1 lessons 22 and 25) marks an earlier action. Lesson 17 opens unit 5, Travel that gives back, with linkers of purpose. A story everyone repeats and nobody can verify is a natural home for he is said to have.

Students spin a wheel of questions about childhood myths and heroes, then learn twelve words, from debunk and confess to dentures and ivory, with pictures and audio. They read Harper's explainer on Parson Weems and Washington's teeth, then hear Harper argue with Rich, a museum guide in Virginia, over whether myths about heroes do harm, and Georgia, a fourth-grade teacher, defend the myth as a fable; both are AI-voiced. The grammar chapter has the scheme and five self-checking drills, among them a table that starts each claim with the person. In the speaking chapter, students answer Liz's myth-or-fact quiz questions in a chat, sort arguments about hero myths and open boxes about myths and heroes.

The ten homework tasks all check themselves: four on the words (a match, an anagram, gaps and a memory game), four on the grammar (infinitive choices, gaps in new sentences, a quiz on the correct sentence and word order), then a myth-busting fact box and Harper's answer to Georgia.

Grammar:
personal passive · passive with an infinitive · is said to have · perfect infinitive · reporting verbs
Topic:
George Washington · the cherry-tree myth · Parson Weems · Washington's false teeth · myths and facts · news and truth · The Why Desk

Teaching tips

  • Draw a line with two points on it: when people say it and when it happened. Students place Ivory is known to stain easily and George is said to have chopped down a tree on it and explain each infinitive.
  • Ask which stories about heroes students believed as children before the reading. Then they read to find out where the cherry tree came from and when it first appeared in print.
  • Play the museum dialogue twice: first to find out who thinks myths about heroes do harm, then to catch He's said to have chopped it down, They're thought to have been wooden and He's known to have sent.
  • Turn the class into a myth-busting desk: each pair takes a myth they grew up with, reports it with is said to have, checks two sources and gives a verdict: is known to have or isn't known to have.

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The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

32 more lessons for adults at B2 in American English, with the same Why Desk team in Pittsburgh. Each lesson answers one question about how Americans learn, work, travel and remember, from the law behind the 40-hour week to the oral histories of StoryCorps. Learners link ideas in formal writing, report what is said and believed, and pack more into a sentence with participle and relative clauses. The practice exercises check themselves.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Learning reimagined

    adjective suffixes and negative prefixes, mixed conditionals, provided that and on condition that

    1. Lesson 1College for farmers' kids?Adjective suffixes and negative prefixes
    2. Lesson 2One cousin, one video, millions of learnersMixed conditionals: a past cause, a result now
    3. Lesson 3A college that says yesConditional linkers: provided that, on condition that, assuming, otherwise
    4. Lesson 4School in the woodsMixed conditionals: a present state, a past result

  2. Unit 2 Work-life balance

    be required to and be entitled to, present and perfect participle clauses, participle clauses after conjunctions

    1. Lesson 5Who decided a week is 40 hours?Formal rules: be required to, be entitled to, be exempt from
    2. Lesson 6A paid year off: rest or research?Present participle clauses for time and reason
    3. Lesson 7Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin?Perfect participle clauses: having done and having been done
    4. Lesson 8Why is the first Monday of September a day off?Participle phrases after conjunctions

  3. Unit 3 Turning points

    reduced relative clauses, preposition + which and whom, which for a whole clause, noun + preposition

    1. Lesson 9The keyboard that opened the officeReduced relative clauses: -ing and the past participle
    2. Lesson 10Earthrise: the photo that changed how we see EarthPreposition + which and whom
    3. Lesson 11A city of white palaces for six monthsSentence relative clauses: which for a whole clause
    4. Lesson 12The count that took eight years?Noun + preposition: a need for, a solution to, access to

  4. Unit 4 News and truth

    although, whereas and while, the impersonal passive, despite and however, is said to have

    1. Lesson 13A newspaper of their ownLinkers of contrast: although, even though, whereas and while
    2. Lesson 14Bat-people on the Moon?The impersonal passive: It is said that…
    3. Lesson 15Read like a fact-checkerLinkers of contrast: despite, in spite of, however and even so
    4. Lesson 16 · you're hereDid George Washington really chop down a cherry tree?Passive reporting verbs: is said to have done

  5. Unit 5 Travel that gives back

    so as to, in order to and so that, modifying comparatives, linkers of reason and result, verb + object + preposition + -ing

    1. Lesson 17Seven rules for the wild?Linkers of purpose: to, in order to, so as to, so that
    2. Lesson 18A lottery to see firefliesModifying comparatives and superlatives
    3. Lesson 19Sunrise with the turtlesLinkers of reason and result
    4. Lesson 20Volunteer on vacation?Verb + object + preposition + -ing

  6. Unit 6 Sport and society

    verb + noun collocations, what phrasal verb particles mean, a for-and-against essay, nouns from phrasal verbs

    1. Lesson 21The college team that changed disability sportVerb + noun collocations
    2. Lesson 22When women played pro baseballPhrasal verbs: what the particles mean
    3. Lesson 23Who needs a referee?The for and against essay: plan and linkers
    4. Lesson 24The comeback of Jim ThorpeNouns from phrasal verbs

  7. Unit 7 Buildings and heritage

    past participle clauses, quantifier + of which and of whom, report language, turn out and prove

    1. Lesson 25Homes built into the cliffsPast participle clauses with a passive meaning
    2. Lesson 26A house over a waterfallQuantifier + of which and of whom
    3. Lesson 27From factory to art museumReport language: headings, impersonal style, recommendations
    4. Lesson 28The towers the city tried to pull downTurn out and prove + to-infinitive or that clause

  8. Unit 8 Generations

    adverb + adjective collocations, three-part phrasal verbs, negative and echo questions, prepositional phrases

    1. Lesson 29Who decides where a generation ends?Adverb + adjective collocations
    2. Lesson 30Music students living in a retirement home?Three-part phrasal verbs
    3. Lesson 31Conversations kept for historyNegative questions and echo questions
    4. Lesson 32A day for grandparentsFixed prepositional phrases

Questions about this lesson

What are passive reporting verbs?
They're verbs such as say, think, believe, know and report in a passive pattern where the person or thing comes first: Young George is said to have chopped down a cherry tree. The writer passes on a claim without saying who made it, and without promising that it's true. The B2 lesson Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai teaches the pattern with the best-known story about the first president.
How do you use “is said to have”?
Is said to have + past participle is for an action before the time of the claim: Weems is said to have heard the story from a lady. For the same time, use to + base form: Ivory is known to stain easily. For an earlier passive, use to have been: The story is thought to have been invented by Weems. The scheme in Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai shows all four.
What are some examples of passive reporting verbs?
Five from Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai: Weems is known to have written to his publisher in January 1800. The story is thought to have been invented by Weems. His teeth are often said to have been made of wood. Ivory is known to stain easily. Is Weems said to have heard the story from a lady? Each one opens with the subject of the claim, not with It.
What's the difference between “it is said that” and “he is said to”?
They report the same claim in two shapes. It is said that he chopped down the tree starts with It and keeps a full clause. He is said to have chopped down the tree starts with the person and uses a to-infinitive. Never mix them: not He is said that he chopped… In edio.ai's B2.2 course, lesson 14 teaches the It form, and lesson 16, Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree?, the personal one.
Is it “is said to chop” or “is said to have chopped”?
For something that happened before people talk about it, it's is said to have chopped: He is said to have chopped down a cherry tree when he was six. He is said to chop would mean he does it now, or regularly. Two more slips: are thought having been made (use to) and to have be made (use been). The chat in Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai uses these slips as wrong replies.
Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree?
There's no evidence that he did. The story first appeared in 1806, in the fifth edition of Mason Locke Weems's biography of Washington, which had first come out in 1800 without it. Weems said he heard it from a lady he didn't name. Mount Vernon, Washington's home, says Weems invented it and that his claims have never been verified. Harper's explainer in Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai traces the story back.
Were George Washington's false teeth made of wood?
No. Mount Vernon says his false teeth were not made of wood. The four sets that survive include hippopotamus, walrus and probably elephant ivory; cow, horse and human teeth; and metals such as silver and gold, with wood only in some tiny pegs. Nobody knows where the wooden-teeth belief came from; some writers suggest that stained ivory looked like wood, but that's a guess. Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai covers both myths.
How do I teach passive reporting verbs to B2 students?
Start from It is said that…, which students know, then move the person to the front: It is said that he chopped down the tree becomes He is said to have chopped down the tree. Ask when the action happened compared with the claim, and choose the infinitive. Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai does this in a table where students rewrite eight It is said that sentences.
What's a good game for practicing “is said to have”?
Play “Legend or record?”: each student writes one claim about a famous person or place, real or invented, and reads it out with is said to have or is known to have. The class votes, then the writer reveals the truth. In Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai, one of the boxes at the end asks which story about your town everyone says is true.
What's good homework for passive reporting verbs?
Good homework makes the time of each action clear, so students can choose between to + base form and to have + past participle: The lake is thought ___ (freeze) solid in the winter of 1977. All ten homework tasks in Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai check themselves, ending with a myth-busting fact box and Harper's answer to Georgia.
How do you practice passive reporting verbs one-to-one?
Swap family legends: the student tells one with distance (My grandfather is said to have fixed every bike on our street), and the teacher asks Is he known to have…? Then switch roles. The chat in Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree? on edio.ai works without a partner: Liz is writing a myth-or-fact quiz for a school night, and the student answers her questions.
Are there interactive exercises for passive reporting verbs?
Yes. With no account, this page plays three parts of Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree?, a B2 lesson on edio.ai: Harper's museum visit with a guide, a gap-fill that asks for the right to-infinitive and Liz's myth-or-fact chat. Everything else needs an account.
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