Example sentences of "[was/were] [pron] [prep] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | And so the words turned back on themselves , phrases reappeared , seeming to confirm other phrases , merely repeating themselves , clicking into place with a semblance of logic which nicely disguised the truth that all these words were nothing but a glittering fabric which hovered above the ground , unwinding endlessly , slipping between the fingers , beguiling like a mirage , taking on whatever shape the conjuror wanted , and leading nowhere . |
| 2 | The point of contact with the fable of disembodied consciousness is that thinking has become Raskolnikov 's work , it has almost become Raskolnikov , and if he did and were nothing but this work we would have the first part of Notes from Underground repeated . |
| 3 | Seen through the disapproving eyes of respectable citizens they were nothing but a disorderly and disorganized rabble , dropouts from the social ladder . |
| 4 | As long ago as 1911 Edmund Holmes wrote of schools that were ‘ ridden by the examination incubus ’ , arguing that everyone was cheated by a system whose merit-order and pass-lists were nothing but ‘ outward signs ’ . |
| 5 | His clothes were nothing but rags , indescribably dirty . |
| 6 | On the one hand , the loss of conviction means that minds are unsettled , directions are changed and loyalties are switched , all as if convictions were nothing but custom or fashion . |
| 7 | People were impostors and children were nothing but the promise of broken bones . |
| 8 | I had a glimpse of a fair-haired girl staring wide-eyed and terrified from a tennis court , her racket held loose by her side and tennis balls scattered at her feet and , though the trees and buildings and gardens were nothing but a high-speed blur , my mind nevertheless registered with a startling clarity that the girl had been completely naked . |
| 9 | There were nothing but shreds of leaves , gnawed stems , and barren shoots . |
| 10 | In Colette 's description we have the sentence : ‘ There were nothing but shreds of leaves , gnawed stems and barren shoots . ’ |
| 11 | ‘ I knew as soon as I saw you that you were nothing but a piece of filth ! |
| 12 | It was possible that these men were nothing but a strong feint designed to draw the allies towards Charleroi while the real French thrust , fuelled by the Emperor 's presence , attacked twenty-five miles to the west at Mons. |
| 13 | Indeed , one had only to go to Rhodesia to see the ample supply of consumer goods in the shops from every part of the world to realise that sanctions were nothing but an empty farce , and that the claim that they were going to bring Mr Ian Smith to his knees was a total fraud . |
| 14 | The natives were treacherous people , as everyone knew , ungodly and faithless , and their early shows of friendship were nothing but a ruse to lull the pioneers into a false feeling of security , so that they could ensnare them in their false enchantments , pounce on them unawares and kill them while they slept . |
| 15 | As his eye travelled over them , the trepidation which Huy had felt turned to contempt , and then to pity , for here were nothing but sorry fragments of imagination . |
| 16 | Blind Io had got his name because , where his eye sockets should have been , there were nothing but two areas of blank skin . |
| 17 | A SELF-STYLED showbiz entrepre-neur 's widely-publicised claims for a brand-new TV soap to rival Coronation Street and EastEnders were nothing but a load of froth . |
| 18 | they were nothing but an excuse for idleness ; twelve hours being too many for a man to work underground without intermission . |
| 19 | Three farmsteads were nothing but black , glittering wood and a column of smoke where a vat of fish-oil had overturned into a brazier , or a roasting-fire got out of hand , or a guttering candle caught hangings . |
| 20 | ‘ I told 'em — -them — you were nothing of the kind . |
| 21 | The Report criticised the crew of the Croydon for not doing more to rectify the compass problems which they had experienced and for relying too heavily on D/F bearings , but it implied that the Darwin W/T station should not have stated the bearings of ‘ night error ’ , they should have known they were nothing of the sort . |
| 22 | When I tried asking the girls I interviewed about them I was often met with a shrug , or a short ‘ no problem ’ reply , as if periods were nothing at all , of no significance , and certainly none to a book on looks , fashion and body-image . |
| 23 | Were nothing to the upset |
| 24 | Even the cash-flow predictions they cared about so much were nothing to her but answers she wanted ticked . |
| 25 | The nerves on the first night at Taunton had been bad ; so had the understudy nerves of the first night at the Variety ; but they were nothing to the sheer blind terror that attended Charles Paris as he waited to go on stage in the role in which Michael Banks 's career had been so tragically cut short the night before . |
| 26 | You were nothing to him by then , nothing . |
| 27 | I did n't want to ask the others , because they were nothing to Mam . |
| 28 | Two moons in one sky were nothing to them . |
| 29 | Well er the money was not you had to buy the and the there were nothing in it unless you went into choosing a a big system like the battery system . |
| 30 | Mary peeped in to get another look at those wonderful moustaches and said to herself that they were nothing like corkscrews , more like one of those curved oriental swords that would cut right through you . |