Example sentences of "[modal v] only [verb] [be] a [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The French had obviously suffered a debâcle but , in itself , the opening up of the frontier with China might only have been a prelude to Chinese invasion and ensuing catastrophe . |
| 2 | Our respective manners proved so widely different , that it would have been quite presumptuous in me to do anything but separate from an undertaking upon which I could only have been a clog . ’ |
| 3 | 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 . |
| 4 | Rune muttered what could only have been a string of invective in his own language as he released his hold on her . |
| 5 | In an attempt to compensate for this and to represent what I can only assume is a minority interest for your readership , my entry consists of a substantial majority of jazzers . |
| 6 | The quality buildings will be let — Broadgate is now 95 per cent leased — but slowly developers will realise they have to convert the bad space which I can only say is a lot of classified DIY . ’ |
| 7 | Now , I do n't think we know what was the exact Sterling equivalent of the fall in our reserves during the last financial year , but it can only have been a minority of that total of £1and1/2 ; billion of public expenditure which was met neither by the product of taxation nor by borrowing from the public . |