Example sentences of "[noun sg] [pron] happened to [be] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | So we entered a genteel teashoppe/cafe which happened to be handy and ordered coffee , as so often before . |
| 2 | A priest who happened to be visiting my mother volunteered to stay on one of these occasions , but the screams drove him out . |
| 3 | Before being taken to the platform , he was introduced to those members of the Committee who happened to be milling around the entrance . |
| 4 | From time to time , almost absent-mindedly , he reached into his pocket and produced a sweet , which he gave to any small boy who happened to be near . |
| 5 | She spent more and more time off her eggs , parading about the yard , cackling as if demented and taking sudden rushes in whatever direction she happened to be facing when each fit of frenzy overcame her . |
| 6 | But , pushing him aside , she gathered her cloak around her , made so bravely from those two old plush tablecloths , and began to walk downhill — the direction she happened to be facing — until she came to St Jude 's churchyard where she sat on a gravestone , her head in her hands , and shivered . |
| 7 | It 's work I have some familiarity with because by accident I happened to be the external examiner of the lad who did it , Peter Williamson . |
| 8 | Would a Melanesian who happened to be one 's cousin five times removed be a relation or a foreigner ? |
| 9 | ‘ Well , he does n't sound like anyone I know , ’ I said , ‘ unless he 's a caddie who happened to be passing nearby and wanted to quiz me about any work available . ’ |
| 10 | Malcolm Rifkind , the Defence Secretary , intervened to say the army believed it would be ‘ grossly invidious for the choice of soldiers for redundancy to depend on whether at any given moment they happened to be serving in Northern Ireland , Bosnia , the UK or elsewhere ’ . |
| 11 | Storm Jameson , a woman novelist active in the peace movement , later recalled : ‘ For some years after 1933 I lived in equivocal amity with pacifists and combative supporters of the League of Nations , adjusting my feelings , in good and bad faith , to the person I happened to be with . |
| 12 | ‘ I 'm calling a friend who happened to be in London with me , ’ he drawled coolly . |
| 13 | George Taylor was collected and he and Mrs Oliver returned to the tobacconists ' to be joined shortly by PC Chandler , an off-duty policeman who happened to be in Higatt 's too . |
| 14 | He had an endearing habit at 10 o'clock of calling on each facet of his customers , starting with the lowest rank of airman , to " piss off " ; and worked through the ranks until he got to Kings ( and on this occasion it happened to be King Peter of Yugoslavia ) . |
| 15 | They had an interest in playing golf together so specifically formed a society giving it the name of the road they happened to be in at the time — Worple Way , Harrow . |
| 16 | She would n't mention the boy who 'd made trouble unless for some reason she happened to be asked about him , and she felt she would not be . |
| 17 | Then one of the travelling craftsmen came out from the town and lined the cart , trap or wagon we happened to be making : that means he painted the finishing touches , the lines on the wheels and the panels . |
| 18 | In 1795–6 , for example , the member of parliament for the county of Angus found himself much concerned with the fate of a piece of crown land which happened to be situated within the plantation lands in the island of St Vincent belonging to Patrick Cruickshank of Stracathro , one of the Angus freeholders . |
| 19 | It can not have been easy for an ordinand or a curate to stand up to contemptuous persiflage about his religion from one of the ablest minds of the generation who happened to be his own brother . |
| 20 | For some , the crime may even pay : thus in the Goodrich disc-brake scandal of the late 1960s , when the company attempted to foist a defective brake-disc system on to a customer who happened to be too clever to be deceived , two of the main executives involved were later promoted ( Vandivier 1972 : 33 ) . |
| 21 | Moral suasion caused the banks to discriminate between customers in a manner unrelated to their ordinary business relations : a customer who happened to be an exporter was eligible for funds , but an equally good customer who , say , imported manufactured consumer goods was deprived of necessary funds . |
| 22 | At that time I happened to be running the scheme as a leader and officer in the Stornoway Sea Cadet Corps and the boy 's mother had asked me to attend in her place . |
| 23 | Generally , they were the cast-offs of two children in the house who happened to be about her own age , and this could mean a pretty frock coming her way , but only if , Mrs Aggie said , she kept her nose clean . |