Example sentences of "had [be] [adj] [prep] " in BNC.
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| 1 | But that had been seven months ago , a chill morning in mid-February , when the bushes which screened the canal walk from the neighbouring council estate had been tangled thickets of lifeless thorn ; when the branches of the ash trees had been black with buds so tight that it seemed impossible they could ever crack into greenness ; and the thin denuded wands of willow , drooping over the canal , had cut delicate feathers on the quickening stream . |
| 2 | Mr Browning wrote to thank her for her diligence and in doing so confirmed what she had been certain of , that Miss Henrietta had died . |
| 3 | That moment in the courtyard when their eyes had met had been real after all ! |
| 4 | Until then , he had been sure of his memories , certain that he could not have forgotten his parents and everything that had happened to him and reinvented the whole of his life before he woke in the attic . |
| 5 | Because no one had been sure of what to do , since there was no prescribed etiquette , the leading members of the Household had decided that a small , but ‘ Imperial ’ dinner-party was the answer . |
| 6 | He had been wildly ambitious and intensely purposeful ; he had been sure of his own worth , and determined to succeed . |
| 7 | This reflection went far to set up Harry again in his own esteem , for it meant that Isambard had been sure of his victim 's obstinate silence even under torture ; more sure of it , if the truth were told , than Harry himself had been at the worst moment . |
| 8 | She had been mean with money all her life , using her daughter and granddaughter as servants , and even herself at times during the last seven or so years as unhired help , except for the time that Rosie was here . |
| 9 | If Pearce Marchbank had been dubious of It he was n't about Oz . |
| 10 | If he had been alert to everyday things he knew he would have heard it sooner . |
| 11 | None of this alters the fact that it is possible to use these adjectives with a tense value distinctively different from that of the preceding verb ; see ( 51 ) and the contrast in ( 52 ) : ( 51 ) we all know Cerrutty to have been fortunate ( 52 ) ( a ) in the test my men showed themselves alert ( b ) in the test my men showed themselves to have been alert In ( 52 ) , ( a ) would naturally be suitable when the men respond promptly during the test , and ( b ) when , for instance , they had been alert in paying attention to instructions given at some time before the test . |
| 12 | It had been deepest at the moment just inside the Bleech-Palmer front door when , as always , Daphne set her plump hands on Cecilia 's shoulders and lifted her lips to Cecilia 's cheek . |
| 13 | A member of the outgoing politburo and a hardline conservative aligned with Florakis , she succeeded Grigoris Farakos , elected in July 1989 [ see p. 37515 ] , who had been conciliatory towards the party 's reformists . |
| 14 | On Oct. 3 , the second anniversary of German unification , several thousand people took part in a protest against xenophobia at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp , which had been fire-bombed in September [ see pp. 39111-12 ] . |
| 15 | Those I interviewed said that nearly all the public comment they had heard had been favourable to the televising of the House . |
| 16 | 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 . |
| 17 | … his wretched father , who had each year sunk lower and lower in the underworld , had been a gentleman once , a man who had been familiar with good manners and had been educated in the customs of good breeding . |
| 18 | Despite his youth he had travelled alone , sleeping in barns along the route , with which he had been familiar through previous trips in his father 's company . |
| 19 | Polly 's bright cotton skirt and sleeveless white broderie anglaise top had been perfect for shopping in the balmy warmth . |
| 20 | Now , late on Sunday afternoon , people were saying that the weather had been perfect for both days of the two-day Show . |
| 21 | Among those to whom I sent a copy of the book on publication was Quintin Hailsham , then Lord Chancellor , with whom , despite our differences of opinion on many matters , I had been friendly over the years . |
| 22 | It had originally been left to her by a noted amateur ornithologist and eccentric with whom she had been friendly for many years . |
| 23 | It was known , also , that the old lady had been friendly with his mother ; and anyway , being a bachelor and retired , he could usually be counted on to take sufferers to hospital in emergency , or bring them home ; as well as visiting murderers in prison , and other tasks ( often called do-gooding by people who have never been remotely in need of that particular little world ) . |
| 24 | I mentioned a boy who had only been at school for two terms , a boy who had had a limp , someone he had been friendly with for a time . |
| 25 | Walter had been friendly with David in England and when he came to Scotland , David granted him lands in Ayrshire , Renfrewshire , Argyll , Bute and the Lothians . |
| 26 | Certain British officers had been friendly with Saw , while Military Intelligence had been indicating since May that Saw was planning to seize power . |
| 27 | Was n't he the one who had been friendly with Pamella Bordes , or was it Donald Trelford of the Observer ? |
| 28 | This was a new factor in Greek politics ; previously Corinth had been friendly towards Athens , partly for the standard reason that Greeks tended to a friends with their neighbours ' enemies ( p. 16 ) . |
| 29 | The model , who had been friendly towards her , was going to be hurt . |
| 30 | ‘ Many … had a complete ban and had been no-smoking from the start because they perceived that smoking did not fit in with their ethos — Boots , for example , or the Body Shop . ’ |