'I was said' vs. 'I was told'

[Torsten]

OK, I saw the following sentence written by a German English teacher who works in a state school:

"... I was said that Ireland is a great country."

The use of said as a passive construction in this context struck me as odd as it seems that teacher confused said with told. So in my opinion that sentence should read:

"... I was told that Ireland is a great country."

Any thoughts on this?
Regards,
Torsten

TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture by a professor of American History

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

"I was said that Ireland is a great country." seems to be either just plain wrong OR in the wrong tense and missing a "t":

"It is said that Ireland is a great country." (i.e., lots of people often say this)

It may be theortetically possible to concoct a sentence where "I was said" could be used, but it would be fairly unusual:

"Apparently I was said to be the best sales person in Europe. I guess that's why the company hired me."

Regarding the second sentence:
"I was told that Ireland is a great country" = Reported speech referring to a specific past conversation and the opinion ("is a great country") is expressed as a fact. You can also replace the "is" with "was" --- which is probably what most grammar books would "expect", but not necessarily what most native speakers would say.

Amy
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