Example sentences of "[prep] what [modal v] [vb infin] [be] [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Then the young woman laughed merrily , her voice strengthening after what must have been years of silence , and the whole strange cellar rang with that laughter , and the glass fragments tinkled like broken bells . |
| 2 | Ultimately , he dashed out of bed and caught a cab to the theatre — where he arrived thirty minutes after what should have been curtain time , to see his erstwhile audience walking away , dejected looks on most of the faces . |
| 3 | Just before I snapped out of it , aborted the failed trance , I thought I saw — although I could n't be certain — the ragged hole in the beard through which Gyggle addressed the world unravel a little at its edge , exposing a slug side of what might have been Gyggle 's lip . |
| 4 | The sleeve had been carefully spread out and the cuff bore a trace of what could have been blood . |
| 5 | The glitter of mockery was back with a vengeance , with a darker glint of what could have been anger in his eyes carefully screened by a rakish smile . |
| 6 | Elinor was looking at him with what might have been respect . |
| 7 | ‘ Perhaps I prefer cold air to hot air , ’ he suggested urbanely , his eyes darkening with what could have been amusement at her spirited defence of her career . |
| 8 | Craft-level courses are equivalent to what would have been apprenticeship level . |
| 9 | Fidel Castro is no far-distant Arab , but rules an island only 90 miles from Key West , on what might have been home ground had politics gone slightly differently less than a century ago . |
| 10 | As emerged later from the television news , he had been visiting the front near al-Amarah , during what must have been part of the offensive named by Tehran as Muharram al-Haram . |
| 11 | ‘ I ate too much last night , ’ said Betty at what would have been breakfast if they 'd made any . |