Example sentences of "[noun sg] [Wh pn] happened to be " in BNC.

  Next page
No Sentence
1 A priest who happened to be visiting my mother volunteered to stay on one of these occasions , but the screams drove him out .
2 Before being taken to the platform , he was introduced to those members of the Committee who happened to be milling around the entrance .
3 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 .
4 Would a Melanesian who happened to be one 's cousin five times removed be a relation or a foreigner ?
5 ‘ 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 . ’
6 ‘ I 'm calling a friend who happened to be in London with me , ’ he drawled coolly .
7 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 .
8 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 .
9 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 ) .
10 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 .
11 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 .
  Next page