Example sentences of "[pers pn] need [adv] [vb infin] be " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | I think now that I need not have been so prim and stand-offish , but I was afraid to wound him further by giving him what might possibly be taken for false ‘ encouragement ’ . |
| 2 | She need n't have been afraid ; Roman drove quickly and smoothly , without speaking a word . |
| 3 | When Alice was sixteen her mother , angry with her about something , said in a fury , ‘ You need n't think being good looking is going to be an advantage in life . |
| 4 | That was quite a nice dinner you ordered , though you need n't have been quite so Spartan — I 'm glad to see you 've allowed us some sugar with these raspberries — I appreciated your nuance of not having the fish just grilled . |
| 5 | ‘ Ah , but you need not have been an outcast , ’ shrewdly guessed the old lady . |
| 6 | Given so little space , however , perhaps we need not have been reminded , as we are in Stanley Cramp 's foreword , that ‘ Ducks , geese , and swans live in or near water ’ , nor that the legs of the last two ‘ are placed near the middle of the body , so that the bird stands fairly upright ’ , Malcolm Ogilvie can tell most people something they did not know about wildfowl , but in this case his publishers clearly rushed him . |
| 7 | Although such twins , as we have seen , were often arch-enemies , they need not have been , Often , they complemented each other peaceably to form a single unity . |
| 8 | It need n't have been my fare at all . ’ |
| 9 | But the doctrine of the extended phenotype has taught us that it need n't have been so . |
| 10 | It need n't have been cricket ; that was almost an aside to my interest in the movements . |
| 11 | ‘ It need n't have been the girl . ’ |
| 12 | It need n't have been need it ? |
| 13 | Of course , some may in the early years have argued plausibly that the payments would rid England of the raiders for good , for it need not have been evident in the 990s that the problem would intensify as it did . |
| 14 | Cnut 's supremacy over part of Sweden may be obscure ; it need not have been ineffective . |
| 15 | Famous ministers , like most of those who are well paid , tended to be defensive of their income : Newman Hall was very loath to talk about his £500 a year although he need not have been . |