Example sentences of "had been [to-vb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Her earlier fears had faded and she thought how foolish she had been to let a ridiculous fancy disturb her happiness . |
| 2 | What a fool he had been to waste so much time being " poetic " and not eating . |
| 3 | But the overall effect of two minutes in her presence had been to fill him with an all powerful sense of her sex . |
| 4 | He was told this had been to drive off an attack by the dog pack . |
| 5 | Some believed indeed that the original intention of Soviet Mediterranean deployments had been to induce a negotiated withdrawal of the United States ' Sixth Fleet . |
| 6 | The consequence of the reduction had been to put resignalling work around Waterloo — which led to the Clapham disaster — two months behind schedule . |
| 7 | Her original plan for the previous Wednesday had been to put in an hour or two of picket duty very early in the morning , and then go on to her appointment at Pringle 's . |
| 8 | And during that terrible evening by the fireside , when she told him her story , how desperately sad she had been to realize he might not love her any more . |
| 9 | The aim of the programme had been to divide the big farms into smaller plots and to redistribute the land to the workers , but it had bred uncertainty among landowners and entrepreneurs many of whom , unwilling to part with their property , had delayed investment . |
| 10 | It seems , however , always to have been associated by those who employed it with the idea that Britain 's historic policy towards its dependencies had been to lead them along the path towards self-government — a belief which had for its principal inspiration the history of Canada since the Durham report . |
| 11 | As Bishop Brinton said , it had been to restore a rightful heir to his kingdom and to defeat tyranny that the campaign in northern Spain had been fought in 1367 . |
| 12 | One alternative option had been to preserve the house as a burnt-out ruin . |
| 13 | I suppose I had been given a sense of the evil of cinema by my strict Methodist grandparents , who were visibly shocked when once I confessed that I had been to see a film on Sunday . |
| 14 | Her sister had been to see her and made her very tired and various strangers had moved her and pummelled her in a familiar manner that made her angry . |
| 15 | He had been to see a palmist and shown him her photo . |
| 16 | I had been to see it years before in a taxi from Roscrea , and had been greatly impressed by the poignant air of haunted melancholy that hung over the ruins . |
| 17 | And if the England boss had been to see QPR in recent weeks , he would have been impressed , especially with Sinton . |
| 18 | Ludens was glad he had been to see Franca and felt sure , as he sat in another taxi bound for Victoria , that she had understood why , and in what frame of mind , he had come . |
| 19 | When they met , Burn said that Donaldson had been to see him in the interim . |
| 20 | ‘ I had been to see him the previous day , and arranged that he come and teach me Dutch . |
| 21 | Principally the visit had been to see a senior boy with lifelong problems who had suddenly become unmanageable and would have to be admitted to an asylum , but while there he had been asked to assess Anna Beckett , a child who had moved him strangely . |
| 22 | She had been to see the inspector in charge of her father 's murder case . |
| 23 | Filmer , I was interested to see , had been to see his horse before departure . |
| 24 | That afternoon she had been to see her doctor in Paris . |
| 25 | Though she had dined with Red Leland that evening and had seemed as pleased to meet him again as he had been to see her , though I had frequently brought up his name since my holiday started , each time she had immediately changed the subject . |
| 26 | Joni records that , at their first meeting , ‘ after an endless stream of compliments on the execution of my work ’ , Berenson , who had purchased from Torrini an ‘ Alberto Aringhieri in prayer ’ ( fig.2 ) inspired by Pinturicchio 's celebrated fresco in Siena cathedral , ‘ singled out the Aringhieri for special praise , saying that he found it more skilfully done even than the original , which he had been to see and examined just before coming to my studio ’ . |
| 27 | She had said that Isobel had been to see her , and that she , Anna had been horrible to her . |
| 28 | A year beforehand , Chudnovsky , who was a collector from Leningrad , and a very well-known one , had been to see me and asked if I could help him . |
| 29 | They had been to see La Boheme , at which Mr O'Hara had cried quite openly , and which Ellie had sat through dry-eyed , but with a breaking heart . |
| 30 | And after that she seemed happy the rest of the way , saying how lovely it had been to see them even for such a short time and how she 'd come down again when she could , but it was such a long way and the trains were so crowded with soldiers and she had had to take two whole days off from the ambulance station . |