Example sentences of "[vb past] n't been [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | He had n't been gardening , but happened to be wearing his casual clothes . |
| 2 | They had n't got as far as stating any intention on that subject — for the simple reason that marriage had n't been part of the plan . |
| 3 | As they drove out of town , along the quiet roads to the country , it became clear to Juliet that the brandy and soda her father had given him had n't been Nigel 's first drink of the evening . |
| 4 | If it had n't been dope it would have been valium : what 's the difference ? |
| 5 | If she had n't been Mrs Arbuthnot , he 'd have told anyone else to stop spoiling her and give her work to do around the house . |
| 6 | If it had n't been Mario , you 'd have thought it was schmaltz ; with Mario , it was peppered with self-irony , with seriousness , punctuated with laughter , with suddenly remembered incidents . |
| 7 | It had n't been irony ; Creston would n't be able to contain himself . |
| 8 | If it had n't been Gabriel , it would have been some other angel along the way . |
| 9 | So it had n't been Johnny up there this morning , after all . |
| 10 | Pascoe realized that what he 'd heard in the voice on the phone had n't been age , but sickness . |
| 11 | She meant to explain that there had n't been room in their cases but before she could speak Miss Evans turned bright red and said quickly , ‘ Oh , I 'm so sorry , how silly of me , why should you ? |
| 12 | Silvia had just came through the front door — that car had n't been Guido after all . |
| 13 | There had n't been time , on Heaven , for the two women to get to know each other . |
| 14 | I would have sworn there had n't been time for you to make any kind of progress since last night . |
| 15 | I think he was an amateur who either thought he 'd succeeded or else was so nervous about what he was doing that he left knowing there had n't been time to kill you . ’ |
| 16 | There had n't been time to get Maxim 's name on the usual notice of forthcoming visitors to the embassy ; she had been signalled by the Security Service who shared the Steering Committee 's deep distrust of the visit and wanted her to debrief him after his meeting . |
| 17 | There had n't been time on the way up to ask him what the results of the tests had been or what the union had consequently decided . |