Example sentences of "[vb past] n't be [art] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | ‘ The only reason we did n't was a pragmatic one : we had just used ‘ Is Government Dead ? ’ and could n't use it again . ’ |
| 2 | One person who did n't was the police sergeant . |
| 3 | And the one time I did n't was the one time I was wrong . |
| 4 | Perhaps if I had n't been a fool I would have been the dead girl in the road . ’ |
| 5 | If it had n't been a yorker I 'd have looked an absolute idiot , I would n't have been in the same street , let alone cricket ground . |
| 6 | There had n't been a proper tea . |
| 7 | Perhaps he 'd planned it , perhaps it had n't been a lightning urge but the first of his traps . |
| 8 | But there had n't been a whisper about it . |
| 9 | She had n't been a lad for a couple of years now , but she knew the routine . |
| 10 | There had n't been a 'plane overhead for him to hear . |
| 11 | But there had n't been a choice . |
| 12 | One of those deep troughs of dust could suck his wheels down , and there 'd be nobody passing on this road , not for days , maybe , maybe not even then , and he had n't thought to bring water along or tell anybody where he 'd gone , it had all happened too fast , there had n't been a moment . |
| 13 | And there had n't been a serious offer for the property in the last twelve months . |
| 14 | It had n't been a dream , or had it ? |
| 15 | But it had n't been a dream . |
| 16 | ‘ If there had n't been a waiting list , Anne would n't be here today . ’ |
| 17 | My first experience of airsports had n't been a good one . |
| 18 | Fifteen years … would have been ten if it had n't been a gun … poor creature … |
| 19 | There had n't been a Friday or Saturday in the last year which had n't been occupied by some social gathering , where he 'd mingled with Vanessa 's friends . |
| 20 | Of course if Sarah had n't been a friend of the Princess of Wales the situation would have been far more difficult in the early stages . |
| 21 | Up until now there had n't been a peep out of the former Jam bassist which I 'd attributed to one of three things — shyness , boredom or a reluctance to interrupt his new boss who , it has to be said , makes Ian Paisley seem like a Trappist Monk when he gets into his stride . |
| 22 | ‘ There was a review of Bolger in the Times and it said that although the city of culture had n't been a success the Dublin Theatre Festival was , ’ he says . |
| 23 | " Nowhere , " she said , but her mother always knew when she was lying because she had n't been a bad liar in her time herself , and it took one to know one . |
| 24 | The dinner with the Schmidts had n't been a success . |
| 25 | Diane had n't been a stunner , but she 'd had a pleasant face and a more than tolerably decent body . |
| 26 | It had n't been a night they had lived through ; it had been the Dark Ages — all seven centuries of them , with wars and oppressions , visions and turbulences . |
| 27 | Perhaps it had n't been a good idea after all to come on this trip together . |
| 28 | Lucy had n't been a hundred per cent sure with Charlie , but here she felt certain . |
| 29 | There had n't been a show , I had no contractions and I could n't be sure that my waters had broken . ’ |
| 30 | It had n't been a little panda , either , but a Rover 2600 , an ‘ Area car ’ . |