Correct or not?

[momo]

Dear all,

1) He was heard to leave the room.
Q: Do we need 'to ' here?

2) I'd like to move somewhere where the people are really friendly.
Q: Do we need 'where ' here?


Thanks

MOMO

[OddThomas]

Q1: Yes, to is necessary in passive constructions of this form: (be) (past participle) to (infinitive)is thought to happen
was seen to be
am known to cry
Q2: Yes, where is needed. It is a conjunction, and connects the subordinate clause to the main clause. Somewhere is an adverb that states the place you'd like to move to, and the subordinate clause explains somewhere in more detail.

[Marius Hancu]

While I agree with OddThomas on the 2nd, I think that the 1st is tolerable:

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Appletons' journal‎ - Page 390 (http://books.google.com/books?id=NQQZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA390&dq=%22heard+leave%22&lr=)


1874

Then she half turns away from him, exclaiming, with more amazed tones than I have ever yet heard leave her lips : " It is merely your fancy. ...

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[Bridget]

While I agree with OddThomas on the 2nd, I think that the 1st is tolerable:

By those who lived in the 19th century, right? :D Go for "heard leaving/heard to leave".

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/hear

Mind, you can say "he was let leave". No "to" needed there.

[Marius Hancu]

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Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable? - Page 96
Samuel Beckett - Fiction (http://books.google.com/books?q=+subject:%22Fiction%22&lr=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES) - 1994 - 256 pages

Such were my thoughts as I waited for my son to come back and Gaber, whom I had not yet heard leave, to go. And tonight I find it strange I could have ...
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[Marius Hancu]

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A Brace of Bloodhounds?
by Virginia Lanier - Fiction - 1998 - 448 pages
Page 232

"Now point to where the car was that you heard leave." Farley moved his arm a
few degrees and was pointing toward the adjoining parking space to the truck's
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[Marius Hancu]

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Speaks the Nightbird?
by Robert McCammon - Fiction - 2007 - 816 pages
Page 448

I would do well to beware. Hazelton, I mean." "Yes, and that's the smartest thing I've heard leave your lips!" Bidwell spent a moment eating again, ...
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[Marius Hancu]

More garbage from the garbage dealer, as usual.

[OddThomas]

Marius, I agree wholeheartedly with all your examples!

The difference between mine and yours is the difference between passive and active voice.

They heard him say.
He was heard to say.These are different constructs.

[Marius Hancu]

Marius, I agree wholeheartedly with all your examples!

The difference between mine and yours is the difference between passive and active voice.
They heard him say.
He was heard to say.These are different constructs.

Both constructions in the above are active, IMO.

However, please tell me which is your alternative for:

1) He was heard to leave the room.

which was discussed here.

To me,

He was heard leave the room.
is OK (although, perhaps, clipped to some) and similar to all those examples of mine in the above.

A more "passive" construct is:

He was heard to have left the room.

but seems a bit strange to me, and not quite passive.

[OddThomas]

We don't need to belabor passive voice. It is well defined a thousandfold elsewhere. To have left is not passive voice but a splendid use of the perfect infinitive.

In the sentence:He was heard to leave the room.
the absent part is by someone. The active voice counterpart of this sentence is:Someone heard him leave the room.
The clause him leave the room is the object of the verb heard. (Him is the subject of the bare infinitive heard.)

Using this pattern, someone heard something happen, as the starting point, we can form untold variations in the passive voice of the form something was heard to happen [by someone]. Something, someone, and happen are two noun phrases and a verb phrase of any degree of simplicity or complexity. Example:That the governor was to be arraigned for embezzlement this afternoon was heard [by this reporter in an exclusive interview with unnamed sources] to be a distinct though distressing possibility barring a last minute deal with the solicitor general's office.
This is still:That was heard to be a possibility.
OrSomeone heard that was a possibility.
To elide (some say elipt) the to in the first sentence above is to make something extraordinarily ungrammatical. And thus it is in the other cases as well.

[Marius Hancu]

We don't need to belabor passive voice.

In the sentence:He was heard to leave the room.
the absent part is by someone. The active voice counterpart of this sentence is:Someone heard him leave the room.


I agree with the above being the passive respectively active version of the same.

[OddThomas]

Finito :)

[Marius Hancu]

OddThomas seems to be right about prescriptions against the example without "to."

See the (* - non-recommended) in the following:

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Studies in the Function of the Passive‎ - Page 117 (http://books.google.com/books?id=gOUdAAAAMAAJ&q=%22was+seen+leave%22+date:1970-2009&dq=%22was+seen+leave%22+date:1970-2009&lr=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES)
by Gabriele Stein - English language (http://books.google.com/books?q=+subject:%22English+language%22&lr=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES) - 1979 - 249 pages

passivization is only possible if the object becomes the passive subject and to is added to the infinitive:

*She was seen leave.
She was seen to leave.
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Phrase Structure Composition and Syntactic Dependencies‎ - Page 98 (http://books.google.com/books?id=ZqXP21u7y5gC&pg=PA98&dq=%22was+seen+leave%22+date:1970-2009&lr=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES)
by Robert Frank - Language Arts & Disciplines (http://books.google.com/books?q=+subject:%22Language+Arts+%26+Disciplines% 22&lr=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES) - 2004 - 388 pages

*She was seen leave the party
*She was made leave the party.

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I heard and I read it many times, but it seems to be frowned upon by (at least some) grammarians.