Example sentences of "[pers pn] happened to [be] [adj] " in BNC.

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1 Because I happened to be fluent in French , I was promoted 11 months later to loan officer and assigned to the French-speaking Arab countries of North Africa , where I made my first international calls .
2 ‘ Oh , Mrs Markham , ’ a Mrs Prothero and President of the Women 's Institute said one day , ‘ I happened to be passing and just wanted to extend a welcome on behalf of the whole village . ’
3 Normally I ask for an appointment , but I happened to be passing and saw the lights — and the chopper .
4 ‘ I 'm glad I happened to be awake , ’ I said , ‘ but I must go now .
5 Well it was a town then but since then it 's been made a city , you see , and I got to know all kinds of people and one gentleman came in there , used to come every evening and write a book and er , I used to look after him if I happened to be that end and er , you see , and then he 'd say , oh just an exchange you know about the weather and just in general thing and then I 'd leave him and he 'd get on with his writing and one day he said to me .
6 I happened to be able to put it together again , it was n't too difficult , and er so I got the job of being clerk-cum-what-have-you .
7 After all , if you happened to be next him after dinner for ten minutes , he would get invaluable hints .
8 All of this is very unlikely , unless you happened to be lucky enough to attend a reasonably progressive school .
9 Er all the clothing you had was provided by yourself , boiler suits , boots er there there was no protective clothing at all , there were no protection for your hearing , er there was no what we called leathers as such for er to save you from getting burned with scales off of the rivets , with burning machines etcetera , there were n't there was absolutely no er protective clothing at all , unless you happened to be able to buy it yourself somewhere .
10 And did he have to flaunt his sexual prowess with her as well , just because she happened to be female , and happened to be there ?
11 He seemed far more concerned to take money off the rich — especially if they happened to be Muslim .
12 To allege incompetence at playing the tuba would not lower most people in the eyes of their fellow citizens — unless they happened to be professional tubists .
13 After about 9 days at Gary and Kaye 's we moved to Caroline Lock 's ; she has a small flat under the house , and it happened to be vacant for a week .
14 But it happened to be true . ’
15 It happened to be true .
16 It happened to be true , though .
17 It happened to be green . ’
18 As has been seen , the choice of Pétain to command at Verdun was made less because of his qualities than because he happened to be available at the moment .
19 Ian was not over-bright , but he happened to be popular with the other boys as he was a good footballer and did quite well at sports generally .
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