Example sentences of "[was/were] [noun] before " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Like the makhilas or elaborately worked sticks made of medlar , with a sharp goad concealed in the handle ; these look decorative enough but they were weapons before they became art forms and Basque men always carried them when they went to markets or cattle fairs and often fought with them . |
| 2 | Many of them were towns before the Romans came ; a few remained towns for a generation longer . |
| 3 | He did n't mean to say it ; the words were nut before he could stop himself . |
| 4 | I started using one hand and it was ages before I learnt to use two . |
| 5 | He would n't tell me and went straight into the bathroom there and it was ages before he came out . |
| 6 | He collapsed into a chair and began to cry … it was ages before he could say anything . |
| 7 | ‘ And in that order , too , ’ Ruth laughed , ‘ because it was ages before she came back for her husband . ’ |
| 8 | And of course it was ages before I knew she meant bruise . |
| 9 | if Vicki was out or er at the side of Vicki when Vick when we had these she was ages before she 'd go and sit in a chair on her own |
| 10 | It was minutes before I could get a word in . |
| 11 | The blindfolds were removed and their ankles were untied but it was minutes before they could stand , much less walk . |
| 12 | It was hours before the first students managed to permeate through the streets and come to within a hundred yards of the Mar Girgis . |
| 13 | It was afternoon before Marian awoke and her first thought was of the body lying face downward on the grass . |
| 14 | In London it was afternoon before the furniture van was fully loaded . |
| 15 | But it was months before anyone took them seriously . |
| 16 | Sally 's was months before she put anything |
| 17 | The memory of their night together haunted her so relentlessly that it was daylight before she fell into an uneasy , exhausted sleep . |
| 18 | It was Saturday before the balloon really went up . |
| 19 | More and more men were thrown into the struggle on both sides ; even so , it was May before the French were completely cleared from the left bank of the Meuse . |
| 20 | As the right hon. Gentleman was Chancellor before it started and has been Prime Minister throughout its course , is it not clear that he is not only the Prime Minister of recession , but the prime cause of recession ? |
| 21 | It was January before I came back . |
| 22 | He liked that contempt , that resentment ; the first time he saw it in the boy 's face he knew it reminded him of something , but it was weeks before it came to him what it was . |
| 23 | I hung on there until , well my fifteenth birthday was in the July and it was November before I actually left . |
| 24 | Time was lost on the first two days and then the Saturday was washed out altogether , so it was Monday before Lloyd was able to complete his first Test hundred at his adopted home , in what many thought would be his last opportunity . |
| 25 | After I woke up , it was days before I needed to eat or drink anything again . ’ |
| 26 | It was days before we managed to get in touch with Sylvia through a third party but luckily she was still fine . |
| 27 | it was years before the full story was made public . |
| 28 | ‘ It was years before I realised it was even common parlance , ’ Kenneth said , still staring out to the loch . |
| 29 | But it was years before he got started , and ‘ thirty-nine before he got published . |
| 30 | It was years before I worked out that he was n't talking about the cream buns . |