Example sentences of "i [modal v] to [be] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | I used to be a professional cleaner — I do n't want to get her into any trouble , I … ’ |
| 2 | He argued , convincingly , that noun phrases taken as a whole may quite often have a different temporal assignment from that of the verb which they accompany , as in : ( 37 ) I used to be a good friend of the police chief The underlined phrase may be understood as past relative to the time of utterance ( and hence in agreement with the time indicated by the verb ) or as present ; the two different time-values correspond to the two different continuations in : ( 38 ) … before he joined the force … until he was shot for corruption The first continuation would be compatible with an expansion of the subject phrase to the man who is the police chief , while the second would support the man who was the police chief . |
| 3 | and he 's saying he 'll marry her and then of course Acky he and he says you know , er A Acky you know , and I used to be a male nurse you know , and John says aye , John |
| 4 | Before I used to be a real reader ; but here there was not one book in the house . |
| 5 | I 've given it up because I used to be a cheesaholic . |
| 6 | ‘ Also , I used to be an up-market wino and after nine months ’ sobriety , I realise what I 'm doing at present is not very fulfilling . |