Example sentences of "[adj] thing would [vb infin] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The sensible thing would have been to say that Crabb had been diving in the area to test out equipment and had got into difficulties , surfaced near the Russian ships and then drowned . |
| 2 | The sensible thing would have been to turn to someone , some sympathetic teacher , perhaps . |
| 3 | I mean , the sensible thing would have been to go to her room , would n't it ? |
| 4 | Not another thing would pull , and she 'd already tried pressing everything … |
| 5 | ‘ This thing would have helped . ’ |
| 6 | The slightest thing would set her off , usually when she was feeling insecure and wanted attention . |
| 7 | The slightest thing would turn his fortune , snatch it , send him home frustrated , bitter , in a sick rage . |
| 8 | The true presence of the signified thing would arrest and limit the play of substitutions for it which language generates . |
| 9 | ‘ The ideal thing would have been for them to keep to their offer of a two-year deal and I would have signed it before the final . |
| 10 | If he 'd come without a lighter or matches , surely the obvious thing would have been to remove the box from the chained brass holder attached to the heater . |
| 11 | The obvious thing would have been to attack at once . |
| 12 | The logical thing would have been to admit defeat . |
| 13 | The smallest thing would set them going . |
| 14 | Well , at least one good thing would come out of this trip , she decided philosophically — she would know a great deal more about Denmark 's capital city by the time she returned to England . |
| 15 | If she wanted us to blame Burrows by faking an entry point , surely the simplest thing would have been to leave the window open ? |
| 16 | So a conversation would start from one point , and one thing would lead to another . |
| 17 | In a muddled way , he expected that she might fall into his arms , that he would be able to comfort her and that one thing would lead to another ; and so absorbed had he become in the effect Sam 's death would have on his own affairs , that he had forgotten that it might have some other effect on Martha 's . |
| 18 | What one thing would improve the quality of your life ? |
| 19 | ‘ I remember , once every year , the town would explode with music when this plainchant thing would come to Wexford . |
| 20 | Now she 'd only have to sneeze and the whole damn thing would slide off her shoulders and into a heap on the floor , in which case she might fairly be accused of trying too hard . |
| 21 | ‘ I 'd have thought the same thing would apply to you , ’ she said , evading a direct answer . |
| 22 | The same thing would have happened in the Bermuda triangle disappearances , do n't you see ? |
| 23 | My first experience in going into tramcars er in , in Edinburgh anyway and I suppose that the same thing would have happened er in any country , just gone through the ravages of war , with blackouts and so forth . |
| 24 | And er they do n't necessarily er er do things with these toy tractors er Well th they they tend to things with these toys to imitate the the real thing er so I th I think the same thing would have happened , maybe a hundred years ago or maybe less , in regard to ploughing with horses on the in the fields . |
| 25 | If , after a stiff swig of nectar , we were to watch further developments , we 'd find that in another 100,000 years or so , or even longer , exactly the same thing would happen again , and the compass would swing back suddenly to its original position . |
| 26 | Perhaps the same thing would happen with the others . |
| 27 | Says a spokesman : ‘ Morrissey was worried the same thing would happen again on Sunday . ’ |
| 28 | Right , well , the Principle says that if you were sitting in your seat pressed back by gravity — because you were on the launch pad with the nose cone pointing upwards — the same thing would happen . |
| 29 | The recovery was slow and by 1937 the rate was still at 9%. 3 By 1941 , then , people looked back across two decades of mass unemployment to the end of the previous war , and by and large they assumed the same thing would happen again . |
| 30 | ‘ So I struggled on when the best thing would have been to go into the reserves and get my confidence back . |