Example sentences of "before [pron] [modal v] [verb] [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | ‘ I decided it was time to say goodbye , but before I could give notice Sam Hall , the Benskin 's area manager , phoned me to say the company was going to turn the Harrow into a managed house . |
| 2 | However , cautious and pragmatic as ever , I realised that before I could take part in the airier abstractions of my chosen profession I needed to confront the nitty-gritty , the hard business of actually selling things , specific products , to industrial customers . |
| 3 | As one mother in Ritchie 's study of families on benefit noted : ‘ I buy half a pound of stewing meat or something and give that to Sid and the kiddies and then I just have the gravy — before I used to buy soya things and substitutes to meat but I ca n't afford that now ’ ( Ritchie , 1990 , p. 35 ) . |
| 4 | ‘ As sure as hell not to see through , that 's a fact ! ’ he ripped into her flatly , and , before she could draw breath , he prodded at the folder that lay on his desk and rapped , ‘ You read perfectly well from this file — without your glasses — the night I delivered it to your apartment ! ’ |
| 5 | He hesitated before her a moment , and then he took her hands and bent his head , and gave her the solemn kiss of kinship ; and before she could draw breath and touch her astonished fingers to her lips , he was out of the paddock and away across the clearing into the trees . |
| 6 | It would be a few hours before she could face Marguerite , and no doubt the girl , Marie , would be very quick to tell Alain 's mother that she had seen the Englishwoman wandering into the woods like a lunatic . |
| 7 | And , before she could fall victim to the tears of rage that threatened her , she stumbled past the startled girl towards the lift . |
| 8 | I remember coming home from school and before you could do homework or go out to play there were always chores to do — you know , our own set of chores . |
| 9 | Realistically , though , you would need to have strong evidence that the existence of such a right is part of your particular deal with your employer , and that you have been denied satisfaction from your work in a clear and unjustifiable fashion , before you could pursue litigation with confidence . |
| 10 | Whereupon I fell about in my chair at this with an effective simulacrum of sycophancy , then matadored the old charm around in front of him for a few minutes , and before you could say fundador Walt was on his knees begging me for the coup de grâce . |
| 11 | I 'd be a Special Constable before you could say Fuzz . |
| 12 | A drink or two extra on a Friday night may be OK ; a glass of vodka before you can face school in the morning is more worrying . |
| 13 | There 's got to be something actually wrong with the goods before you can claim money back . |
| 14 | " The rules are that if you leave your employment voluntarily you have to wait six weeks before you can claim Unemployment Benefit . |
| 15 | You will , however , need to know whether your employer/former employer or pension paying organisation has or will be introducing the scheme before you can take part . |
| 16 | If you have a highly cultured heron than any of Papagena 's numbers from the Magic Flute will see it off before you can say Gin Rin Kohaku . |
| 17 | Not like the old one — bottle of pink medicine and out through the door before you can say knife … ’ |
| 18 | He soon regains the old knack — and before you can say angel-dust , he 's flying and sword-fighting like never before . |
| 19 | ‘ You 've got to have qualifications in this world before you can get money . |
| 20 | But that means waiting for years before you can get part of your investment back , and your ex-wife will be faced with finding a new place with limited funds . |
| 21 | Before you used to have specialist machinery , but now you can go to a shop in your own town and pick up spares so a lot more people are going over . |
| 22 | Before we 'd set foot over the doorstep Mum had started . |
| 23 | Secord remembered how they would get ‘ sermonized ’ , and how ‘ we had a lot to live down before we could do business . ’ |
| 24 | The immediate political crisis had been averted , but there was still a long , long way to go before we could claim victory . |
| 25 | Before before we could get nationalization , we had to get a Labour government . |
| 26 | ‘ If you start with a new house and new furniture it is usually about five years before anybody can get asthma in that house : it takes that time for the mite dung deposits to build up . |
| 27 | It found that on average , women expect to be taken out to dinner ten times before they 'll have sex with a man . ’ |
| 28 | The next day Professor Pearn , who was working in intelligence , came in to warn me that the Japs were breaking through from Taung-gyi and that it was only a matter of hours before they would reach Maymyo . |
| 29 | So Aaron and his sons must be cleansed , robed and their sins expiated by sacrifice before they may take office . |
| 30 | They will apply to fourth and fifth-formers , aimed at providing the pupils with more choice and flexibility during the last two years before they can leave school . |