Example sentences of "could [adv] have [be] a [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | 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 . ’ |
| 2 | 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 . |
| 3 | Rune muttered what could only have been a string of invective in his own language as he released his hold on her . |
| 4 | ‘ But ‘ little ’ could just have been a term of endearment . |
| 5 | He could easily have been a character in a Thomas Mann novel — the great remote maestro venturing down from The Magic Mountain to talk to a visiting writer . |
| 6 | This could easily have been a series of practices such as our own in areas where no education or communication with the local general practitioners took place . |
| 7 | This tally could possibly have been a lot more had it not been for his unreliable behaviour in the show ring . |
| 8 | Allott , also 35 , was recalled from holiday in Wales to discover his fate , but it could hardly have been a surprise as he has not regularly figured in Lancashire 's games this season . |
| 9 | Furthermore , the offer could hardly have been a surprise to him . |
| 10 | This was never well stocked and could hardly have been a goldmine . |
| 11 | They were reluctant to believe that there could ever have been a time when the Universe had not looked much like it is today . |
| 12 | In a nineteenth-century printed version of a fourteenth-century document a family was called de Farbereshaye , a form which seemed reasonable and could conceivably have been a version of Fabro = Smith and ( ge ) haeg = enclosure . |
| 13 | Evidently it did not occur to him that it could also have been a case of the mastery of English becoming a kind of weapon in the mouths of the dispossessed . |
| 14 | However , although there is no indication of the source of 10 marks payable to Roger Blomfeld of Buxton , Norfolk ( where he also owned land worth 13s. 4d. ) , the £1. 9s. 8d. assigned to Thomas Parker , a servant of the king at Elmley Lovett , Worcs. , could well have been a payment from the manor , which was a royal estate , and Parker himself did not live there . |
| 15 | Referring to the Braer disaster in Shetland , Capt Sclater said : ‘ This could well have been a tanker and it goes to show how vulnerable Orkney is . ’ |
| 16 | Without that damned barrister there could well have been a verdict of accidental death . |
| 17 | If he 'd become too demanding , and ‘ doing something about him ’ meant ending the relationship , that could well have been a motive for killing her . |
| 18 | Granpa thought it could well have been a Saturday , felt it most likely the month had been January , was confident the year was 1900 , and knew it was in the reign of Queen Victoria . |
| 19 | This might on the one hand have been positive pressure for improvement ; it could equally have been a move to prevent closure . |
| 20 | Their bodies were very different , although Boy 's showed promise , and could indeed have been a version of , a study for , O 's magnificent musculature , twenty years earlier . |
| 21 | But Mr Knightley could never have been a phoney . |