Example sentences of "[modal v] it [adv] [vb infin] be " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Was it meant to be a chuckling advertisement for his own sensibility ; a tease about the gritty , unpolishable surface of the desert ; or might it just have been a joke on us ? |
| 2 | Could it also have been that the extent of available free labour resources had been exaggerated ? |
| 3 | Why could it not have been there always , hard and black from the start ? |
| 4 | ‘ Could it not have been something innocent ? ’ |
| 5 | Could it possibly have been Matthew ? |
| 6 | Would it not have been too painful , not least having to watch another youngster take his first steps into the fatherless state ? |
| 7 | Would it not have been a pipedream only six weeks ago to think that the Berlin Wall would be knocked down ? ’ |
| 8 | Yet would it not have been better for them if 't were not done at all ? |
| 9 | Since Death in Venice is also to be performed , would it not have been better to keep Grimes for the new house and to have included a Rossini opera as a nostalgic as well as topical reminder of golden evenings ? |
| 10 | But would it not have been sensible to go and see for himself , before rushing off a wholly inaccurate letter ? |
| 11 | Would it not have been better to imagine the possibility of a different , better world ? |
| 12 | Would it not have been better for them to wait until the children came home for Christmas ? |
| 13 | ‘ Would it not have been more usual for your daughter to have stayed with her mother ? ’ |
| 14 | But would it not have been better , he mused , to have left the banqueting hall and defended the Residency where there was a well ? |
| 15 | But , in that case , would it not have been enough to defend Saudi Arabia and maintain the pressure on Saddam Hussein through sanctions ? |
| 16 | Would it not have been kinder had she pretended to be glad — since it was Christmas time , after all — when Odette had come rushing to show her that letter from her father ? |
| 17 | If that is the case , would it not have been better for the hon. Gentleman to keep his own counsel when he stated publicly that we were bound to fail in our negotiations ? |
| 18 | Even had the bid been financed mainly with borrowed cash , would it not have been referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission ? |
| 19 | Can it really have been much more than an up-market doss-house ? |