Example sentences of "it had be [adj] [prep] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick too was watching the shops go by , remembering the last time he had walked down them , it had been early in 1916 , and he had gone out with Mickey — God Rest Him — to buy his mother an Easter gift . |
| 2 | As Agnes hurried down the street it came to her that it had been tactless of her to talk about life being dull and with no bright future ; for had they any bright future ? |
| 3 | After 1986 parliamentary concern shifted towards the security service or MI5 , particularly because of allegations that it had been involved in attempts to smear elected politicians during the 1970s . |
| 4 | It had been uppermost in her mind to ask about Marc , but her courage failed her at the last . |
| 5 | The chastened company admitted that the shock loss showed that it had been guilty of poor financial controls and a badly-timed shareholders letter — Vannotti said the board was convinced up to March 22 when the shareholders letter was sent that it would record a profit for 1992 , but he and the chairman subsequently ordered a special audit , after financial controllers warned of problems with the accounts for Ascom 's cable television and mobile telephone businesses in Germany , and a closer examination revealed the German results had to be corrected by $41m — $28m of extraordinary depreciation and $12.8m of adjustments to inventory values , Vannotti said . |
| 6 | Once she had tried to describe these feelings to Brian , but , while he had been prepared to admit that her mother was virtually certifiable , he had given it as his opinion that her father had been a remarkable man and a fine artist and richly entitled to his eccentricities : indeed , it had been incumbent on him , Brian had implied , to flout the conventions . |
| 7 | If it had been impossible for one reason or another to use a boat on the water I would have done the best I could with a plummet and noted what I could see from the banks . |
| 8 | The thought of it had been impossible for so long that it took some getting used to . |
| 9 | On the walk back to Daphne 's flat Becky could n't help feeling a little guilty about deserting Charlie on his first night home and began to think perhaps it had been selfish of her to accept an invitation to go to a concert with Guy that night . |
| 10 | It had been awkward for me to ask our family doctor to prescribe it : he knew my husband and I had parted some time ago . |
| 11 | However , it was clear from the Special Commissioner 's decision that he had looked at all the evidence and asked himself whether in view of that evidence it had been reasonable for the inspector to form the view he had taken . |
| 12 | It had been unoccupied since the war . |
| 13 | It had been hopeless from the start . |
| 14 | With this scene of confusion before his eyes it seems unlikely that he would have contemplated using any wheeled transport , even supposing that it had been available for his use at the time . |
| 15 | It had been dark for an hour when I got back to the car park . |
| 16 | It had been dark for hours . |
| 17 | It had been dry for weeks , but there were thunderheads over against the mountains and the atmosphere was heavy with the hint of rain . |
| 18 | In the old days before the local government reorganization of 1974 , it had been possible for Local Education Authorities to make their decisions relatively autonomously , with a view to the educational needs of local children , and under the guidance of often very high-powered and imaginative Chief Education Officers . |
| 19 | However , since there had been open and vigorous debate about what everyone wanted , it had been possible for her to exercise considerable discretion on the department 's behalf when ordering , or selecting at book suppliers . |
| 20 | If it had been possible for a bird to stop still with surprise in the air , and stay exactly where it was , that rook would have done it then . |
| 21 | If it had been possible for the old Castle to grow darker , Grainne thought it would have done so in the hour that followed . |
| 22 | Until 1925 it had been possible for Communists to be represented in all sections of the Labour Party but at the liverpool Conference it was decided to exclude them from membership . |
| 23 | But it had been simmering for a couple of years before that . |
| 24 | It had been far from the capital week he had come to expect from Cowes , what with Willie winning everything in sight , having to make diplomatic speeches to his own nephew about how jolly it was to lose to him , and then just as he got time to drown his sorrows at the Yacht Club he had to come to Broadstairs . |
| 25 | Even the Darwinian theory of evolution was impressive , not because the concept of evolution was new — it had been familiar for decades — but because it provided for the first time a satisfactory explanatory model for the origin of species , and did so in terms which were entirely familiar even to non-scientists , since they echoed the most familiar concept of the liberal economy , competition . |
| 26 | We reckoned that the British Army was the most professional in the world and that it had been influential in training the South African and Israeli armies who we thought took second and third place . |
| 27 | It had been distinct from the others . |
| 28 | It had been apparent to Hank for some time that , in spite of repeating Grade 12 at school , he was likely to fail his exams again . |
| 29 | Anselm acquiesced in this explanation and waited for peace , but then , long after it had been apparent to others , it dawned on him that he must either do the job or give it up — preferably , so far as he was concerned , the latter . |
| 30 | Their closeness was less due to their nearness in age — though with only eighteen months between them it had been easy for them to grow up with similar interests and shared confidences — than to the fact that neither of their parents had ever made much of them . |