Example sentences of "[noun] had been [v-ing] a [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Up to then the UK and Irish entries had been fighting a tooth and nail contest . |
| 2 | Ann had been taking an antidepressant for 6 months without much benefit . |
| 3 | THE magician and his talking parrot had been working an ocean liner , until one day the liner went down in fog . |
| 4 | ‘ When we were waiting to be questioned by the police , Doug Wilson was saying that Rodney had been making a play for Angy and hinting that he might have got somewhere . ’ |
| 5 | But unknown to the gunman , a little boy had been stealing a ride on the bar under the carriage , and he saw it all . |
| 6 | The engineers had been investigating a fault with overhead cables in the field at Bromyard in Herefordshire . |
| 7 | The girl had been seeing a lot of another young man , an estate agent called Jose , and that association continued after the marriage — long after ! |
| 8 | The chairman , wearing a fawn sports jacket , said he apologised if he had ‘ caused any offence ’ , but said he was annoyed because Mr Loveluck-Edwards had been reading a novel in court . |
| 9 | They seemed to be positioned at random as if the guests had been playing a game with them and not sitting around the table in an orderly fashion . |
| 10 | The New Right had been showing an interest in Labour 's support for lesbian and gay rights for some time , and a number of organizations such as the National Front , the New Patriotic Movement . |
| 11 | Teachers , with a professional nose for the job had been handling a range of social issues , especially under the general heading of PSE ( Personal and Social Education ) . |
| 12 | Fortunately Newley had been wearing a tie and belt . |
| 13 | Endill had been dragging an ironing-board back from a room where everything was half buried in the floor when , turning a corner , he bumped into a tall thin man who had appeared from nowhere . |
| 14 | Her husband had been having an affair with Suzanne Regan . |
| 15 | The policeman had been investigating a burglary in which a Midland cash card , a portable CD player , a Hitachi portable television set , a silver bracelet , an 18-carat gold chain and St Christopher and five silver necklaces were stolen . |
| 16 | Mr Nagdi had been carrying a gun when he left for work yesterday but he did not get a chance to use it . |
| 17 | The officers had been plotting a map , in changing colours , to show how the contras were fading out of Nicaragua ; suddenly it reversed its trend , and they were back . |
| 18 | The commando had been planning a car bomb attack in Seville during its April fair . |
| 19 | He got a job in insurance and the marriage lasted about three years and three months , then Bunny found out that his quiet , dutiful wife had been having an affair with her boss at the food research place where she worked for roughly three years and two months . |
| 20 | Melissa played thoughtfully with her empty coffee mug and reflected on what now seemed the certainty that Rodney Shergold had been having an affair with Angy . |
| 21 | For some time , Coutts had been considering an application from Virgin to increase their overdraft facility above the previously agreed limit of £4m . |
| 22 | Tabitha wondered how long the woman had been scratching a living on the waterways , complaining to uncaring passengers , never quite summoning up the cash or the strength to take the long haul home . |
| 23 | A qualified nurse Pamela Armstrong said that she and two other woman had been running a stall in the Bootle Strand shopping centre . |
| 24 | The craftsmen of the local Guilds had been performing a play on the Feast of Corpus Christi for eighty years . |
| 25 | While we had been lording it in the Solent , Alert had been making a name for herself in Shetland as a stand in for Venturous . |
| 26 | But if Berowne had been seeking a moment for further confidences it had disappeared . |
| 27 | The youths had been holding a vigil for student Quaddus Ali , who remains ‘ critical but stable ’ after reportedly being attacked by a gang of white youths in Stepney , east London , on Wednesday . |
| 28 | Peter had been working a debt of love . |
| 29 | George noted that Sprague — it would only be Sprague had been leaking a version of Maxim 's performance at the Committee . |
| 30 | Boucher had been making a habit of beating Britain 's best 10stone 7lb men in Gary Jacobs , Mickey Hughes and Kirkland Laing , and Loughran 's win must be one of the finer British achievements of the past 12 months . |