Example sentences of "i [modal v] do [was/were] [verb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | If I did n't want it he would say that he was keeping me and the least I could do was give him sex . |
| 2 | If I was to spend race day reporting as a spectator , then the least I could do was arrive early and attempt the course myself . |
| 3 | But all I could do was remind people of John 's situation . |
| 4 | Look , at the most all I could do was bring whoever did it to trial . ’ |
| 5 | But — ’ she said , her voice suddenly bitter , ‘ I 'm not in a position to talk , since all I could do was run — eh ? |
| 6 | All I could do was to mumble that I regretted not taking my degree , and , though I could see it was irritating of me to whine , to feel stale and bored was not such a trivial thing ; that though we might have the vote now , meals still had to be prepared and children looked after and since this kind of drudgery was despised by society as not being ‘ real work ’ , we were in the hideous position of being both exhausted and imprisoned by it and also looked down on for doing it ; that I had honestly tried to be the sort of wife Richard wanted — and the sort of wife I felt I ought to be — but it was like being in a kind of airless cell and I could only see Richard as a jailer ; that I saw myself becoming progressively more and more incapable of doing anything , not just mentally , but from some kind of paralysis of will . |
| 7 | ‘ All I could do was shut my eyes and think of John Major . ’ |
| 8 | By next morning some stray cat had eaten much of his back , so all I could do was measure him . |
| 9 | All I could do was repeat the injections , but was it going to make the slightest difference ? |
| 10 | ‘ I realised he was n't going to be able to stop and all I could do was watch him come closer and closer to me . |
| 11 | All I could do was write a letter , and by the time I 'd written a letter and it got where it was going and a reply got back , a week or two weeks could have gone by . |
| 12 | There were no books in the room so all I could do was look out of the window and wait for the quarterly chimes from the Cathedral Clock . |
| 13 | So the least I could do was to get out and around looking for the guy . |
| 14 | The least I could do was agree to have dinner with him . ’ |
| 15 | The only thing I could do was discuss with her yet again the best way to express our case . |
| 16 | What I used to do was to get hold of them behind their hand . |
| 17 | While I was in a single room , what I used to do was get hold of sani towels and put my dog ends in and let them smoulder and wave them out the hatch . |
| 18 | All I need do was agree to a list of people who had already been named , so I would n't be hurting anyone . |