Example sentences of "[pron] had [adv] been able " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Thanks to Karen 's attack I had n't been able to pee , and when my organ switched from reproductive to urinary mode I realized that my bladder was bursting . |
| 2 | More likely the net was carried away because the ground was bone dry and hard and I had n't been able to push the stakes deep enough into the soil . |
| 3 | I had n't been able to do that for so long . ’ |
| 4 | I could say some of the things I had n't been able to say when I left him , because I had n't shared his feelings then . |
| 5 | Still , it was the hangover of that piece of moral cowardice at Lochgair station , along with everything else , that led to me feeling so profoundly awful with myself that evening ( after the train finally did get into Queen Street and I walked back , soaked and somehow no longer hungry , in the rain to the empty flat in Grant Street ) , that mum had to call me there , because I had n't been able to bring myself to phone her and dad … and I still managed to feign sleep and a little shame and a smattering of sorrow and reassure her as best I could that really I was all right , yes of course , not to worry , I was fine , thanks for calling … and so of course after that felt even worse . |
| 6 | Well , in fact I did n't know , not for certain , but I could n't see any signs at all of brassière straps or elastic waistbands which I had n't been able to help noticing on all other women . |
| 7 | I was getting hungry and frustrated because I had n't been able to enjoy any of it . |
| 8 | I even carried out a double-bluff of appearing slightly guilty for the wrong reasons , so that adults told me I should n't blame myself because I had n't been able to warn Paul in time . |
| 9 | But I can assure you that I would n't have lasted five minutes in what , by any standards , is a very tricky and difficult market if I had n't been able to cope with the work . |
| 10 | Michelangelo , da Vinci , Bellini , Caravaggio , Bernini — half the world 's art treasures in one country , and I had n't been able to travel beyond the walls of the Victoria and Albert . |
| 11 | I was allowed to record each group and I found the transcribing of the tapes less arduous as I had also been able to make notes . |
| 12 | What , really , has it done for Daisy — if I had not been able to help materially ? |
| 13 | This was a very great help to me , because I was able to learn the meaning of many words that I had not been able to understand before . |
| 14 | The nightmares stopped instantly after this explanation , and I was able to give lectures , stand up for myself and speak in public — all of which I had never been able to do before . ’ |
| 15 | I had never been able to understand them then , but I sympathized with them now . |
| 16 | I had never been able to do that , not with such unselfconscious pleasure , perhaps because deep down I had resented his existence which was preventing me doing all the marvellous things I had intended to do in the world . |
| 17 | I had never been able to persuade her to accept any money for her kindness and tried to reciprocate by doing any small repairs she needed to her flat , and by supplying occasional tickets for the theatre , for the tennis at Wimbledon , and for the races at Epsom . |
| 18 | Even when she was well , I had never been able to relax because I never knew from one day to the next how I was going to find her . |
| 19 | ‘ And you , ’ I asked , hungry to question a culture I had only been able to observe , ‘ what do you consider yourself to be ? ’ |
| 20 | They walked on , thinking of This and That , and by-and-by they came to an enchanted place on the very top of the Forest called Galleons Lap , which is sixty-something trees in a circle ; and Christopher Robin knew that it was enchanted because nobody had ever been able to count whether it was sixty-three or sixty-four , not even when he tied a piece of string round each tree after he had counted it . |
| 21 | A second round of voting , in constituencies which had not been able to complete their quota of candidates , was announced for May 8 ; in this round , the candidates with most votes would be declared elected , even if they received less than the 30 per cent required for election in the first round . |
| 22 | She had even been able to effect an imperfect superimposition of her reality upon his own . |
| 23 | He had set down the bag of washing on the floor between his feet , for she had n't been able to manage the washing since last year 's fall . |
| 24 | Previously she had n't been able to work out whether he was or not . |
| 25 | For a long time after she had died , she had n't been able to think about her at all , it had been so awful , but now she could . |
| 26 | And if she had n't been able to judge this from their dress , she would have from their voices as , one following the other , they said , ‘ Good evening . ’ |
| 27 | She always said she could n't have gone to Brownies at all if she had n't been able to cycle , for the distance was too far for her to walk , and there was no bus . |
| 28 | She had n't been able to read the signature at the bottom of the page , and that seemed wrong , somehow . |
| 29 | She had n't been able to read anything from the ice-chips that stared back at her . |
| 30 | She had been interrupted , she had n't been able to make him understand exactly what had happened to Christina . |