Example sentences of "not have [been] [adj -er] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The immediate contrast with earlier feminist sexual politics could not have been sharper . |
| 2 | ‘ Oh no , ma'am , I could not have been plainer as to everything . ’ |
| 3 | You can probably find things to say about how well George and Marie have gone about co-ordinating their marketing , financial and personnel activities , and you could even ask yourself whether they might not have been wiser to expand ( if that is what they still want to do ) in a different direction altogether . |
| 4 | As it turned out , his timing could not have been worse . |
| 5 | The time could not have been worse , defeat by Peru was bad enough but the entire Scottish party had been invited to a reception with the Minister of Sport Denis Howell , a former referee and a declared opponent of drug abuse in sport . |
| 6 | His timing could not have been worse . |
| 7 | The devaluation of sterling , the lira and the peseta , Italian austerity measures , referendum jitters in France , a feeble dollar and no rich Americans around , news that President Mitterrand had cancer , massive attacks on the French franc by speculators : short of nuclear war , the economic backdrop for this year 's splendid Biennale des Antiquaires in the Grand Palais from 17 September to 4 October could not have been worse . |
| 8 | A question I would ask is that given the product which you had in June and the fact that presumably you have to take what goes , presumably the fact that they do n't send you the strongest stuff erm are you surprised that the figures were down in view of the quality of what you had , or are you surprised it might not have been worse ? |
| 9 | I think I 'm rather surprised they might not have been worse . |
| 10 | My first impression of London could not have been worse . |
| 11 | By any rational political calculation , the timing of this move could not have been worse . |
| 12 | The challenge for coordinated planning could not have been greater . |
| 13 | The erotic effect was electrifying ; it could not have been greater if he had plunged his hand into her crotch . |
| 14 | You could not have been better . |
| 15 | Yet would it not have been better for them if 't were not done at all ? |
| 16 | The political ground could not have been better for a new middle party and many , including myself , thought that they could well achieve the breakthrough they sought . |
| 17 | EGG production could not have been better in the new EC-regulation , stress-free perchery barn of Mr Tony Wilson-Brown on his Lincolnshire farm , when his 2,700 brown hens listened to Radio 4 for 13 hours a day . |
| 18 | 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 ? |
| 19 | Would it not have been better to imagine the possibility of a different , better world ? |
| 20 | Would it not have been better for them to wait until the children came home for Christmas ? |
| 21 | But would it not have been better , he mused , to have left the banqueting hall and defended the Residency where there was a well ? |
| 22 | ‘ It could not have been better , Hans . |
| 23 | 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 ? |
| 24 | It could not have been better and it was a credit to the game of golf the way that the spectators reacted to both sides . |
| 25 | Erm I just wonder whether it might not have been better to move round a little bit to the left so we could have seen the lady 's hand and sa as well er er and as well as her face , you know , we 've got ta get we can see what she 's doing , know what she 's doing but it 'd been nice if you could have included her hands . |
| 26 | She had no need to give it further emphasis , it could not have been clearer . |
| 27 | Sometimes during her lucid moments , she thought that Annunziata could not have been kinder if Julia had been one of her daughters . |
| 28 | He could not have been kinder nor taken more trouble to see that we enjoyed ourselves . |
| 29 | 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 ? |
| 30 | His gaunt son , who could not have been older than 12 , stood slumped over a hunting rifle , gazing at the plumes of smoke rising from the green expanse which runs along the fringes of Sarajevo 's old quarter . |