Example sentences of "he used to [be] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | He used to be a seaman . |
| 2 | He used to be a keen sportsman in his younger days and rowed for England . |
| 3 | The children were deeply ashamed : ‘ He used to be like that when Luke was here , Rose ; only it was worse . ’ |
| 4 | In fact he used to be seen lunching austerely in his favourite vegetarian restaurant on the corner of Leicester Square , where the permitted maximum of five shillings for the price of a meal could only be spent by earnest application . |
| 5 | St Colum seems to have attracted legends around himself wherever he went , for as Columba he used to be well known to every Scottish schoolboy for converting the King of the Picts , banishing water horses and other praiseworthy acts . |
| 6 | ‘ He used to be so … ’ |
| 7 | Not as alive as he used to be , ’ runs the caption to one cartoon . |
| 8 | During a recent election broadcast he featured as Sir Denis ‘ Foreman ’ — as in the foreman of a building site , rather than of Granada of which he used to be deputy chairman . |
| 9 | He does n't believe his wife 's 92-year-old grandmother , Wendy ( Maggie Smith ) , when she assures him that he used to be Peter Pan . |
| 10 | Garbo , Garland , Gardner , Garson and Gable were there — and that was just the Gs — but the old grey Mayer was n't what he used to be , and he had been ousted from MGM by the time Nicholson arrived as a messenger boy . |
| 11 | Well , it turned out he used to be a ‘ pretty successful writer ’ , but then he found he was just getting into ‘ things that were too weird . ’ |
| 12 | He used to be asked long , drawn-out questions that went on and on . |
| 13 | He used to be next door to Ryan 's Son , but now Hopscotch is in Ryan 's old stable . |
| 14 | In his pre-sponsorship days he used to be known as ‘ the surfer who lived in a car ’ ; in France he had a tent on the beach . |
| 15 | He used to be a surfer and dreamed of being one again . |
| 16 | Another thing we had a barney with Peter about at one point , was the fact that he used to be too drunk on stage , ’ says Charman . |
| 17 | He used to be pretty good , as I remember . ’ |
| 18 | And here he was , a man turned sixty , still upright , but no longer handsome or as jolly as he used to be . |
| 19 | He 's very uncooperative and aggressive , not at all like what he used to be … oh yes , it is a strain . ’ |
| 20 | He used to be chauffeur-driven to market and one evening , when returning via Lower Road , Bemerton , on the way back to his home at Donhead , saw a small child in the water , being swept downstream by the fast-flowing River Nadder . |
| 21 | ‘ He used to be a very useful runner in his younger days , ’ Joe explained , ‘ used to run for the Gloucester Harriers so they say . |
| 22 | Dose assessment : The account of dose calculation contained in Urquhart 's article does not allow the method he used to be completely understood , and it has proved to be impossible to obtain the ‘ fuller version ’ of the article , either from the Journal of Nuclear Information . |
| 23 | Alain Prost is not as quick as he used to be but was smarter , and Nigel Mansell is not the smoothest driver around but he has a lot of ‘ mechanical talent ’ . |
| 24 | ‘ Not as alive as he used to be ’ |
| 25 | ‘ He used to be at Cowley , ’ said Jack rather reluctantly , not feeling up to casual conversation . |
| 26 | He used to be the crier , but had recently taken over from Fred Harrison who had proclaimed the fair annually for the last thirty years . |
| 27 | You can tell he used to be a Radio 1 DJ . |
| 28 | ‘ He used to be bitter because his father never visited him either but he never let his feelings out . ’ |
| 29 | ‘ He used to be such a cheerful , happy and friendly man . |
| 30 | He used to be in the board meeting with us , and was referred to as the ‘ sleeping partner ’ by the directors ! ’ |