Example sentences of "[verb] [adv] been for [pron] [adj] " in BNC.

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1 If it had not been for their long , soul-searching conversations about the Koran and the life of the Prophet , he would probably not , now , be sleeping with her .
2 Brian had given Scarlet the impression that , if it had not been for his first wife and her child , and his second wife and her child , he would have been living a life of carefree splendour in a house adjacent to the park .
3 If it had n't been for her fat friend , she would have overslept .
4 If it had n't been for your shiftless nephew , Suzie would be back in England by now , my mother would n't be having sleepless nights and I could be in London doing the job for which I 'm paid ! ’
5 ‘ If it had n't been for your ghastly aunt we 'd have been married by now . ’
6 Fire-brigade or not , if it had n't been for your bright idea and splendid work and your friend 's race for help to the farmhouse the whole field would be ablaze , ’ said Farmer Olinton .
7 If it had n't been for his diligent research and dogged answer seeking , I would n't be leaving for America two hours from now in the hope of a cure .
8 If it had n't been for his harsh , laboured breathing , Isabel would not have known that he still lived .
9 Adam would have faced almost certain death if it had n't been for his quick thinking .
10 But before we jump to the conclusion that Pound had simply had a brainstorm , or had been trapped by misplaced compassion for Dunning as a lame duck , we ought to consider another possibility — that imagism , and Pound 's endorsement of Ford 's insistence on ‘ the prose tradition ’ , had never been for him more than an aberration , though in the short term a very profitable one , from a way of feeling that impelled him always toward the cantabile , a proclivity that would , in the interests of melody , tolerate notably eccentric diction .
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