Example sentences of "could not [vb infin] [subord] [pron] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | I could not speak although I was conscious . |
| 2 | At first I could not speak because I hated him so much . |
| 3 | Decio where the courts ruled that a corporation could not recover unless it first proved that it had in fact been injured by the insider 's illicit trading . |
| 4 | If Ministers were tempted to give undertakings to the Committee , on which unfortunately I could not serve because I was dealing with other orders such as the Scottish seed potato order at the time , what has happened is a bit below the belt . |
| 5 | They recall the occasion when , as a boy , he had read in an epigraph two lines from Henry King 's " Exequy " — and how he could not rest until he had found and read the poem entire . |
| 6 | Lists of players who had gone to the front were now being compiled , and by Aug 1915 Crawford himself realised that things could not continue as they were . |
| 7 | She could not move until he released her . |
| 8 | She absolutely could not move because her level of arousal was so high she had no performance her performance being walking in that case |
| 9 | Smiling at her over people 's shoulders while she could not move because someone was telling her at length how much she must be missing her mother . |
| 10 | By the time I reached the address , I could not decide whether I should ask him to wait . |
| 11 | The position before this case was that if a power was properly classifiable as a prerogative power , the courts could decide what the extent of the power was and whether a proper occasion for its exercise had arisen , but they could not decide whether it had been exercised reasonably or fairly . |
| 12 | Today I could not decide whether it was the absent Montaine or the pot au feu . |
| 13 | Towards the end of the soirée , Eliot stood for a while by himself in a seemingly abstracted state , and , looking at him across the room , I could not decide whether he was looking in my direction or not . |
| 14 | Loretta could not decide whether he was genuinely unenthusiastic about the idea , or whether it was the alienating effect of his upper middle-class accent . |
| 15 | They could not stop because there was nowhere to stop . |
| 16 | I was on the limit and I could not stop when he braked . |
| 17 | Then Blackadder could not think whether he had noticed the screen naturalist because his mind was primed with Ash 's image , or whether it had worked independently . |
| 18 | The anti-realist does not believe in the existence of this further ‘ real ’ world which lies behind the world that we know and which may come apart from our world in ways which of course we could not recognize if they occurred . |
| 19 | But he could not settle when he was put to bed . |
| 20 | It was as if by drinking from the cold spring they were hoping to appease some spirit of the place so that it would n't turn unfriendly to their studies ; but they could not settle as they tried to read and make notes . |
| 21 | She could not tell whether their new dampness was the result of emotion or blinking . |
| 22 | In the dark it was impossible to see whether the curtains were drawn , but certainly no chink of light showed and she could not tell whether he was there , asleep , or whether his flat was empty . |
| 23 | She could not tell whether he also meant he would not be at the flat long , only long enough to collect his bag and take a taxi to whichever friend 's spare room he had negotiated to borrow . |
| 24 | Sally-Anne could not tell whether he said this critically or not . |
| 25 | Ruthven had his cat with him , stroking it and muttering something — I could not tell whether he was talking to himself or his pet . |
| 26 | Hazel crouched down by Blackberry and laid his nostrils close to Bigwig 's , but a light breeze was blowing and he could not tell whether there was breath or not . |
| 27 | If in the latter one could not tell whether his voice was as bad as it was supposed to be , the former gave ample proof . |
| 28 | He could not tell whether she believed him . |
| 29 | Her mouth opened and closed , but Clive could not tell whether she was making any noises . |
| 30 | Somewhere , he could not tell whether it was near or far , somewhere outside his present universe of ice , a bell was tolling . |