Example sentences of "[was/were] they [prep] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | To answer this question , we must first assess the significance of homage and fealty in the later thirteenth century : how important were they as expressions of subordination of one ruler to another ? |
| 2 | Dad had a regular and earnest young crowd of head-bowers — students , psychologists , nurses , musicians — who adored him , some of whom rang and visited late at night in panic and fear , so dependent were they on his listening kindness . |
| 3 | What were they on that the rest of the nation was n't ? |
| 4 | Donna chewed her lip contemplatively as she read , forced to run her index finger beneath the words , so jumbled and irregularly formed were they on the faded page . |
| 5 | Where were they on the Sunday , that 'd be what … ? ’ |
| 6 | ‘ Were they on speaking terms ? ’ |
| 7 | Mm , were they on the dock ? |
| 8 | ‘ Were they on the same side of the path as the moor gate ? ’ 'Yes . |
| 9 | Were they on holiday ? |
| 10 | How were they on batteries ? |
| 11 | And in the years after the end of the 1939–45 war there was such a spate of generals ' diaries that it at times seemed difficult to understand how these men had time for the job in hand , so busy were they with their diaries . |
| 12 | From other Regional Commissioners came stories of mattresses , bed linen and clothing having to be destroyed , so infested were they with evacuated lice . |
| 13 | Only in 1689 , the closing date for this study , were they at last given the legal right to conduct their nonconformist worship in their own meeting-houses ( see Chapters 3 and 6 ) . |
| 14 | Were they at different transfer rates ? |
| 15 | ‘ Who were they at that stage ? ’ |
| 16 | So how much were they at the Swan 's then ? |
| 17 | I 'd always wondered what drove them , what were they about . |
| 18 | Neither were they over familiar with the tambourine . |
| 19 | Were they to be friends ? |
| 20 | Rye is officially what is called an ‘ Ancient Town ’ attached to the Cinque Ports , those small ports along the coasts of Kent and East Sussex which were fortified against the French ; so necessary were they to the Crown that , in 1278 , they were given legal privileges : exemption from taxes , the right to rule themselves and appoint their own judges . |
| 21 | So addicted were they to this practice , which relieved their frugal existence by exporting their products to the more populous dales , that they earned a reputation as ‘ the terrible knitters of Dent ’ : terrible not because their handiwork was slipshod but because of their complete dedication to the craft . |
| 22 | They belong to the countryside and were they to be evicted the countryside itself would cease to exist . |
| 23 | Indeed , some would say , without much exaggeration , that , were they to be deprived of music , life would lose its meaning ’ ( Storr , 1970 , p.363 ) . |
| 24 | What were they to her ? |
| 25 | Ceauşescu was happy to meet this condition : for him , as for any true follower of Lenin , a trade union was ‘ a transmission belt of authority ’ ; if the union officials could not get the workers to meet their targets , failed to anticipate strikes , and then did not resolve them at once , what use were they to the regime ? |
| 26 | ( A trifling proportion , perhaps — though students of the trivial are usually intrigued to learn that all the dissolved salts in the sea , were they to be dried out , would be enough to cover the entire land surface of the planet to a depth of 150 feet . ) |
| 27 | How were they to be filled ? |
| 28 | Were they to be three in that huge bed ? |
| 29 | As to his feelings for Madeleine , nurtured since he 'd been a little boy , even were they to be revived , it seemed unlikely Madeleine would respond to him . |
| 30 | Were they to be realised , patronage might not disappear entirely but it would wither substantially as a result of being seen as increasingly unnecessary and underhand . |