Example sentences of "it [modal v] have been a [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | It may have been a stopping-place for drovers — but he could still do Dr Johnson the honour of making lemonade from fresh lemons . |
| 2 | It may have been a twig snapping , except that the sound appeared to be inside Rincewind 's head . |
| 3 | Well it may have been a grunt of irritation that his lovely hire-car was steaming up with two sweaty , stinking hill-walkers who had forced their way in uninvited , but I prefer to think disbelief . |
| 4 | He was beginning to feel that it may have been a mistake , it may have been wiser to have remained elsewhere . |
| 5 | It may have been a trick of the light . |
| 6 | It may have been a sign of things to come that though the strike led to a long lasting respect between Havelock Wilson and Tom Mann , no such relationship developed with Ben Tillett , who in his recollections of the strike refrains from making mention of Wilson at all . |
| 7 | Charlton thought it may have been a kind of store-yard where goods for the abbey were landed and deposited . |
| 8 | It may have been a domus inclusa but is now a coal hole . |
| 9 | It might have been a question of time , it may have been a question of tooling , it may have been a question of instruments , it may have been a question of materials , raw materials , or a compilation of all of these things . |
| 10 | It might have been a question of time , it may have been a question of tooling , it may have been a question of instruments , it may have been a question of materials , raw materials , or a compilation of all of these things . |
| 11 | It might have been a question of time , it may have been a question of tooling , it may have been a question of instruments , it may have been a question of materials , raw materials , or a compilation of all of these things . |
| 12 | It may have been a factor in leading a plaintiff to sue in the county court rather than the High Court when his or her claim lay within its jurisdiction . |
| 13 | It may have been a consciousness of the inevitability of stalemate or gradual decline on the wages front at home which led Wilson to divert much of his attention the international scene . |
| 14 | The faience plaques Evans discovered in the East Wing of the Knossos Labyrinth probably originally fitted together , jigsaw-fashion , to make a picture of a complete town ; it may have been a town under attack from invaders , like the town shown on the silver Siege Rhyton found at Mycenae . |
| 15 | This represented a quite remarkable compromise which required the co-operation of Aethelred , king of the Mercians , who restored Wilfrid 's Mercian possessions , and Aelfflaed , abbess of Whitby , whose influence with King Aldfrith is likely to have been considerable ( Vita Wilfridi , ch. 43 ) , but it may have been a manifestation of the insecurity of Aldfrith in the years immediately following his accession . |
| 16 | As for [ h ] -dropping — I have suggested elsewhere ( J. Milroy , 1983 ) that in the Middle Ages it may have been a marker of more cultured speech . |
| 17 | What this would have looked like is sometimes difficult to imagine — it may have been no more than a larger-than-average farmstead , or it may have been a palace such as those found at Yeavering and Cheddar . |
| 18 | At first this was interpreted as a separate medusa-like form , but it appears in a number of specimens in just such a position and some now think that it may have been a holdfast . |
| 19 | Alexander said that it may have been a form of epilepsy , exacerbated by the atmospheric-electric disturbances of the mistral and the heat . |
| 20 | ‘ I loved the song , and I think it should have been a hit , but there again the record company did nothing to promote it . |
| 21 | It should have been a problem because the personal details of Flora are meant to be secret , under the terms of a high court injunction granted in the middle of last month , Sarah is not allowed to discuss anything about her daughter with anyone , other than her legal and medical advisors . |
| 22 | It should have been a deathtrap , but it was n't . |
| 23 | It should have been a ticket to the less cheerful part of Novaya Zemlya . |
| 24 | It should have been a relief to escape from the train at Holborn but as she crossed the platform and began to mount the stairs a feeling of confusion and disorientation took hold of her . |
| 25 | It should have been a race a World champion like John Hill could easily take in his stride . |
| 26 | It should have been a flamethrower . |
| 27 | It should have been a warning to me when I noticed that none of the other foreigners was going anywhere near the wicker-basket toboggans , each with two dapper attendants . |
| 28 | It should have been a crow of triumph , but Robbie felt very far from exalted . |
| 29 | Their last meal in it should have been a kind of sacrament . |
| 30 | SIX lengths ahead , only yards to the winning post … it should have been a doddle for Irish jockey Charlie Swan . |