Example sentences of "[vb past] [prep] [be] able " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Here Dickens stayed for his holiday one year , baulked of being able to rant Fort House as he desired . |
| 2 | She longed , oh , she burned to be able to tell him the truth , but Ace 's threats held ; also by the way Mike was looking at her at the moment he probably would n't believe her if she told him the truth about their relationship . |
| 3 | His child-like enjoyment of the new equipment and gadgetry he came to be able to afford in later life gave warmly affectionate amusement to his friends especially when they found him camping in his own front garden in the latest tent and sleeping bag , or were asked to take him , when he was stone-blind from glaucoma , to the locations of his favourite plants to photograph them with an auto-focus camera . |
| 4 | be careful of the roads because a car ca n't erm ca n't always stop in time it 's up to you not to walk out in front of them cos they can say oh well you should be able to stop in time but in practice if you drove to be able to stop in time if somebody stepped out in front of you you 'd never above about five miles an hour you know ? you must sort of stick to the speed limits I do n't believe it we got gaining on the car in front . |
| 5 | He had a clean , bare style ; when writing he seemed to be able to slip the burden of his personality as he could never do face to face . |
| 6 | Exceedingly self-reliant , each man seemed to be able to do his own thinking and to be purely democratic and independent in his ideas and purposes . |
| 7 | Jim liked him , and Bruce seemed to be able to manage with her mother . |
| 8 | Catherine or St Catherine 's Hill itself constituted a Pandora 's box of small-town trades and occupations at the time : everything from a gingerbread maker to a hairdresser , a staymaker , a breechesmaker , Charles Tucker the coalminer , John Golledge the blind schoolmaster , Mrs Allen at the Castle public house , and even John Ward , who seemed to be able to support himself by practising the noble art of a ‘ horse jockey ’ . |
| 9 | In these circumstances , a determined mother could be free to groom herself , hold office in this or that community activity , or find a job , in order to fulfil herself ; though none of them seemed to be able to explain why acting as a bank teller or the secretary of a charity , for example , was more fulfilling than looking after their own children . |
| 10 | Although his tones were conversational — and in his case this naturally meant loud — none of the people in the adjacent seats seemed to be able to hear him . |
| 11 | All he seemed to be able to concentrate on was the small dimple that appeared to the left of Julia 's mouth whenever she smiled her rather lopsided smile . |
| 12 | Unfortunately , he never seemed to be able to give them an explanation of what this Holy Spirit was supposed to be . |
| 13 | Something in that dark brown gaze of his seemed to be able to squeeze the truth out of her . |
| 14 | The only place I seemed to be able to reach you was in bed . |
| 15 | In spite of his efforts he seemed to be able to do no more than mumble . |
| 16 | Once on the ferry , Amanda and he had gone to the snack-bar and eaten prepacked sausage rolls and washed them down with beer ; she seemed to be able to drink quantities without degenerating into giggles like one or two earlier companions . |
| 17 | He seemed to be able to do everything else . |
| 18 | Yet he seemed to be able to switch off whatever it was he experienced . |
| 19 | They seemed to be able to move through the red death without being frozen in time . |
| 20 | So the only way I seemed to be able to keep Arthur was to become dependent on him . ’ |
| 21 | Medicine seemed to be able , at best , to alleviate the growing burden of degenerative and chronic illness : arthritis , diabetes , respiratory disease , and mental illnesses like schizophrenia or Alzheimer 's disease . |
| 22 | Seemed to be able to organise his back line very well . |
| 23 | Her sister Clare , eighteen months her junior , described her as quote , a sister who seemed to be able do everything , she had a never ending social life , I was amazed how she managed to fit everything in unquote . |
| 24 | Kitty never seemed to be able to hold down a job for more than a week at a time , but somehow she was still better dressed than any of us . |
| 25 | By the sixth week , Charlie could strip and clean a rifle almost as quickly as Tommy , but it was his friend who turned out to be a crack shot and seemed to be able to hit anything that moved at two hundred yards . |
| 26 | Mm , it 's a thought , they seemed to be able to manage ok . |
| 27 | By the third day of the war , Pentagon officials boasted of being able to drop as much as 5,000 tons of bombs a day on Baghdad — double the amount dropped by Allies during the 1945 bombing of Dresden . |
| 28 | I happened to be able to put it together again , it was n't too difficult , and er so I got the job of being clerk-cum-what-have-you . |
| 29 | Er all the clothing you had was provided by yourself , boiler suits , boots er there there was no protective clothing at all , there were no protection for your hearing , er there was no what we called leathers as such for er to save you from getting burned with scales off of the rivets , with burning machines etcetera , there were n't there was absolutely no er protective clothing at all , unless you happened to be able to buy it yourself somewhere . |
| 30 | In 1943 , Dall heard of an American who claimed to be able to produce the world 's smallest writing , on a scale that would allow 30 copies of the Bible to be engraved on a square inch ( 6–5 sq cm ) of glass . |