Example sentences of "they used to " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | ‘ Folk are n't eating it like they used to , owing to the radioactivity from Sellafield , ’ the shopkeeper said . |
| 2 | I think perhaps on the whole people understand that better than they used to . |
| 3 | Among the ‘ lower caste ’ people , the woman 's role had always been rather different from her role in the farming castes ; now ‘ lower caste ’ women worked increasingly in the fields alongside the men and this led , according to Mamdani , to ‘ a radical change … in the attitude towards girl children … low caste families do not look upon the birth of a girl with the disfavour they used to ’ — though ‘ to a certain extent the disfavour persists because the girl will marry and emigrate precisely when she has reached the age of greatest productivity ’ . |
| 4 | In Pakistan they used to be my constant companions . |
| 5 | They used to really flatten her down . |
| 6 | FINGS ai n't wot they used to be department : The recent ministerial reshuffle has stripped the rather snobby Home Office of three Old Etonians — Hurd , Renton and Hogg . |
| 7 | They used to be extremely good value ; now they are eminently ignorable . |
| 8 | The scientists who man the climatological observation posts are less cautious than they used to be now that the general theory of climate change has become common property ; government servants are more confident and outspoken ; and , while scepticism remains , no cabinet minister is likely to denounce the theory and the accompanying evidence as hysterical . |
| 9 | Nevertheless , RAF attitudes were changing : the disbandment of Fighter Command and the probable demise of the V Force made pilot seats in transport aircraft more attractive than they used to be . |
| 10 | The columnists on the op-ed pages are more bloody-minded than they used to be , but in its editorials the Times remains the voice of American public policy . |
| 11 | Now some have — and foreign investors , less credulous anyway , are more needed than they used to be . |
| 12 | This enabled him to look forward with confidence to continued improvements which would put the British plants back at the top of the performance league , where they used to be , and where they belonged . |
| 13 | Women occasionally sent him things , at least they used to — alcohol , aftershave or their knickers . |
| 14 | Inside each brown case waited the empty skull-face , folded flat , with a flappy rubber nose and hard cylindrical snout , though they frightened Dot less now than they used to . |
| 15 | The Mulverins have a farm there now — they used to be the stewards when I was a girl . |
| 16 | ‘ They are fiercer than they have been for years , right back to what they used to be , ’ he said . |
| 17 | Who would have thought we would be watching the Kirov ( as they used to be ) performing a pas de deux from Antony Tudor 's The Leaves are Fading ? |
| 18 | The risk , they argued , was judging South Africa 's rugby resources as they used to be , not what they might become . |
| 19 | ‘ They used to be , I grant you , some models , but now our quality control is as good as anybody 's . |
| 20 | An Aberdeenshire small farmer had retired , but onto a seven-acre croft where ‘ they used to always have fences to mend and trees to cut down ; ’ ‘ he used to take me round on the barrow , when he was cuttin' down trees . ’ |
| 21 | They used to be in the garden here , but Her Majesty doesnae care for them so they were thrown out on the rubbish heap , but the rubbish heap was by the river so the seeds were carried down by the water and sprouted by themselves on the bank . |
| 22 | The effect , claims Wren , has been significant : ‘ Staff are using it much more than they used to . ’ |
| 23 | They used to be called tea gowns many years ago . |
| 24 | Powders are not what they used to be and today 's formulations wo n't clog , streak or look heavy , provided you apply them properly . |
| 25 | For the first time , things are n't working quite as well as they used to . |
| 26 | She had never learned to read , either , and on the very rare occasions she received a letter Christine was called in to read it to her , Miss Miggs being careful to explain that her eyes were n't as good as they used to be or that she could n't find her glasses . |
| 27 | They used to be common in the Aberdeen Angus too . |
| 28 | They used to be called waghorns in Lancashire . |
| 29 | They used to ‘ baby-sit ’ for us at a time when teenagers resent a ‘ sitter-in ’ , for we were glad to be able to leave Shanti in their care without her realising it — they were there anyway . |
| 30 | ‘ Not as thick as they used to be , ’ snorted Squeaky , ‘ not many big uns either . ’ |