Example sentences of "they happened to [be] [v-ing] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | It was alleged that at first the railway company denied that they had been travelling on the train at all , and it was indeed suggested that the two children were chance victims of the holocaust and they happened to be wandering by the railway at the time . |
| 2 | 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 ’ . |
| 3 | Everything had an improvised , random air about it , as if people had erected new machines just where they happened to be standing at the time , next to the debris of the old . |
| 4 | Although upper class men varied their clothing rather more , according to what they happened to be doing , for formal public appearances they sometimes wore the toga . |
| 5 | This was true , in its way , but that did not prevent great-nephews and great-nieces becoming irritated when Auntie babied them and fussed over their clothing or over whatever they happened to be doing . |
| 6 | Alison had rung to say that she was coming up to London for an appointment and could they lunch at a restaurant to which they had both occasionally gone when working at Brentwoods , if they happened to be feeling affluent . |