Example sentences of "[pers pn] [modal v] to [be] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | I used to be a professional cleaner — I do n't want to get her into any trouble , I … ’ |
| 2 | He argued , convincingly , that noun phrases taken as a whole may quite often have a different temporal assignment from that of the verb which they accompany , as in : ( 37 ) I used to be a good friend of the police chief The underlined phrase may be understood as past relative to the time of utterance ( and hence in agreement with the time indicated by the verb ) or as present ; the two different time-values correspond to the two different continuations in : ( 38 ) … before he joined the force … until he was shot for corruption The first continuation would be compatible with an expansion of the subject phrase to the man who is the police chief , while the second would support the man who was the police chief . |
| 3 | and he 's saying he 'll marry her and then of course Acky he and he says you know , er A Acky you know , and I used to be a male nurse you know , and John says aye , John |
| 4 | Before I used to be a real reader ; but here there was not one book in the house . |
| 5 | I 've given it up because I used to be a cheesaholic . |
| 6 | She used to be a good cunt , now she was a dressful of dead fishmeat . |
| 7 | You used to be a whole sack of them ! |
| 8 | You looked at the streets of your home province and you exclaimed , ‘ We used to be a spotless people , sweeping , polishing , tidying , setting things in order . |
| 9 | And there used to be a a little croft croft there of long ago , and it 's er it 's all planted now with trees all round about it but I suppose they could still see where they used to be A black smith had stayed there . |
| 10 | What about Port Vale I 've heard people say they used to be a hard team to play . |
| 11 | Collectively they used to be a formidable bunch . |
| 12 | They used to be a big family in Cullbridge : milling and banking and that sort of thing . |
| 13 | I think it ought to be a regular feature , a regular feature for everywhere regardless , because it was felt that er during the the May play which proved to be wrong |
| 14 | It ought to be a single , but it 's filled with an old double bed they must have folded in half to squeeze in here , and the internal walls are cheap partitions from where they gutted the Edwardian interior and crammed in as many cubicles as they could . |
| 15 | But do you feel it ought to be a free market erm situation , at least to the extent that anyone can move into any area they wish to provided they could find a place to live ? |
| 16 | It used to be a bloody do-it-yourself shop ! |
| 17 | It used to be a marvellous one |
| 18 | Then occasionally when we had houses broken into and so on , if it was thought that a tramp could have been responsible , it used to be a great help if we gave out nine tickets for tramps and only eight of the nine were admitted to the casual ward , then we should clamp down of course on the one who failed to turn up . |
| 19 | It used to be a cheap meal Ann . |
| 20 | It used to be a good town for the hides trappers brought down out of the hills , but that trade is gone now , along with many another . |
| 21 | It used to be a tremendous transition from 1 April when you realised you would n't have the garden to yourself until quite suddenly at the end of October when everybody goes . |
| 22 | It used to be a major debate at this congress . |
| 23 | It used to be a large wooded area , a rich tropical forest with many species , including gibbons , macaques , tigers , panthers , wild boars , deer , bears and several kinds of pheasants , most of which are now rare in Vietnam . |
| 24 | It used to be a popular theory that death-feigning animals were somehow self-hypnotised , or that they were thrown into such an acute state of shock by their tormentors that they went into an unconscious , cataleptic state , as though from a fit or seizure . |
| 25 | He used to be a professional sailor before an accident meant he lost the use of his legs , but he 's still able to pursue the sport he loves . |
| 26 | He used to be right out here Frank , he used to be a right paunch |
| 27 | He used to be a keen sportsman in his younger days and rowed for England . |
| 28 | ‘ He used to be a good cop . ’ |
| 29 | It is hoped that Rambert will be one of the first companies to appear at the Festival Theatre when it opens next year , by which time Christopher Bruce will have taken over as artistic director of the company with which he used to be a leading dancer and choreographer . |
| 30 | He used to be a a driver , a driver , and then he used to be a driving supervisor and now he 's in like , in traffic now . |