Example sentences of "[noun] could [adv] have [been] a " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | But Mr Knightley could never have been a phoney . |
| 2 | Maybe I was worried that someone else would read my diary , but if so this worry could only have been a slight one : I was much too careful to afford anyone the opportunity to snoop . |
| 3 | This tally could possibly have been a lot more had it not been for his unreliable behaviour in the show ring . |
| 4 | As an example to the world that the young were powerful , that money was not the be-all and end-all , Apple could hardly have been a bigger failure . |
| 5 | Furthermore , the offer could hardly have been a surprise to him . |
| 6 | Zen 's barking background could only have been a big plus the day he found a newborn baby whose entire experience of life was going to be lying abandoned for a few hours by a creek near Plymouth . |
| 7 | Such an equilibrium could only have been a temporary one , being based upon the fear of a common enemy , rather than on a positive material joint interest . |
| 8 | And so it was that she died alone in a mental hospital — as Eliot told Violet Schiff , one of the few who had known them both from their earliest days together , death could only have been a deliverance for her . |