Example sentences of "he could not [vb infin] be " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | ‘ The only thing he could n't do was to look longingly innocent . |
| 2 | The one thing he could n't do was sell or get rid of them . |
| 3 | He had come unscathed through all his ops and then was reluctantly persuaded to become Navigation Officer , but he could n't bear being grounded . |
| 4 | Wexford was n't inclined to be sentimental over the Cullams but he could n't help being faintly touched that they who were poor in everything had been affluent , extravagant and imaginative in one respect . |
| 5 | He could n't help being reminded of a cat 's tight , shell-pink rectum . |
| 6 | Looking into her frightened eyes , he could n't help being reminded of a leveret he had once caught as a boy . |
| 7 | He could n't help being a simple soul could he ? |
| 8 | Well he could n't help being a miserable sod , he looks a right miserable sod ! |
| 9 | What he could n't understand was , if Tammuz was Ewan , as he suspected , why he had kept away from the girl . |
| 10 | He says I 'd better go and check the money so he said erm but what he could n't understand was they wrote to him and said that they have n't paid the cheques but they did n't say anything about freezing his account ! |
| 11 | He could n't have been more than quarter of an hour having his tea . |
| 12 | He could n't have been unconscious for long , looking back , but it seemed an eternity at the time . |
| 13 | He could n't have been more chatty and pleasant . |
| 14 | By that I do n't mean he could n't have been responsible for their deaths , I just mean that I do n't think he 's on speaking terms with his conscience . |
| 15 | He could n't have been more than two , three minutes collecting Erlich in South Audley Street , but there it was . |
| 16 | He could n't have been more wrong . |
| 17 | Fresh , though he could n't have been less than thirty and Jezrael was still young enough to think that was old . |
| 18 | We talked a lot about art — he could n't have been a better sitter . |
| 19 | If what he told Rose was true , he could n't have been at the belvedere after about a quarter to nine . |
| 20 | " He could n't have been put in from either bank , because the body was weighted , and it would have sunk in shallow water . |
| 21 | ‘ So you see , Anna — he could n't have been all bad , ’ Merrill reminded her . |
| 22 | He could n't have been that old , could he ? ’ |
| 23 | He could n't have been more than five years old , she realised with a sense of shock . |
| 24 | And , remembering the way the wretched man had kept his finger on the bell , ‘ He could n't have been that lucky — to pick on the one flat you were in out of all the others — purely by chance . ’ |
| 25 | She saw the look of surprise on Nicolo 's face but then , he could n't have been any more surprised than she was . |
| 26 | next week so he could n't have been away anyway . |
| 27 | I knew he could n't resist being asked his professional opinion . |
| 28 | And for a moment he was afraid that the huge grin he could not control was going to stretch his face permanently out of shape . |
| 29 | But on his first proper encounter with Tolkien — at a meeting with English Faculty colleagues at Merton College in May 1926 — he could not help being charmed by this ‘ smooth , pale , fluent little chap ’ . |
| 30 | Had it not been for Goleniewski 's information , which the court could not be told about , Blake would never have been caught and because Goleniewski could not have given evidence without Blake 's confession he could not have been brought to trial . |