Este o construcție care se folosește cu

a) verbe de percepție senzorială, activitate mentală, declarative, cauzative, ce exprimă o cerere, un ordin, permisiunea și verbe intranzitive prepoziționale la diateza pasivă: to hear, to notice, to feel, to notice, to observe, to perceive, to see, to watch, to believe, to consider, to deny, to imagine, to know, to suppose, to think, to understand, to admit, to announce, to declare, to pronounce, to report, to say, to state,  to have, to help, to let, to make, to ask, to beseech, to beg, to invite, to request, to urge, to allow, to command, to order, to permit.

  • They were seen to leave the office very late.
  • He was known to be a young men without fortune.
  • He was ordered to come at once.
  • She must be persuaded to tell the truth.
  • Children were not allowed to come in.
  • He was waited for to come back

b) verbe la diateza activă: to appear, to chance, to happen, to probe, to turn out, to seem

  • He just happened to be passing so he dropped in.

c) construcția to be +, certain, likely, unlikely, sure

  • They were sure to come.