Example sentences of "it [was/were] [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Their ideal of endogamy , which treats the marriage exchange as if it were non-existent , is an example of such a mechanism for achieving peace . |
| 2 | Two men will have two weeks off and it were twelve in the shop . |
| 3 | It were twelve o'clock when you went today , when you dropped me off at work . |
| 4 | Trying to define , or speaking as if it were possible to define , ‘ precisely what He meant ’ by saying who He was , was a sort of profanity . |
| 5 | This means that , even if it were possible to deal with free-riders by making them breathe dirty air , it would be economically inefficient to do so . |
| 6 | ‘ You are saying that if it were possible to remove a fertilized egg cell from a woman after she had conceived , you could examine it and say what the resulting child would be like ? ’ |
| 7 | If it were possible , I would include you . ’ |
| 8 | If it were possible for Jessie to go and live in Durham , it was also possible that at times she could meet Robbie Felton , and then perhaps they could get married and go off somewhere . |
| 9 | If it were possible to draw up reasonably accurate guidelines showing the rate of decline in use for each subject this would clearly serve as valuable background information for the librarian attempting to make discard or relegation decisions on individual volumes within those subject areas . |
| 10 | However , if it were possible to keep careful watch over a longer period , you would discover two interesting things . |
| 11 | The latter case would indicate that , if it were possible for real observers to pass through the horizon , then most would miss this singularity . |
| 12 | Furthermore , even if it were possible to make the necessary calculations , the finance available is unlikely to be equivalent to these costs . |
| 13 | The findings from the investigation , as given above , caused both the client and the analysts to review the situation and concentrate first on the general organisation of the filing system as a whole , to determine if it were possible to achieve some degree of commonality as a prerequisite to the development of a computer support system . |
| 14 | If it were possible to use this audio-visual material for Swedish students , direct with the English commentaries , it would save considerable time and expense . |
| 15 | If it were possible to unfold the entire long history of the world 's religions in such a manner that it could be scrutinised , assimilated and judged in a single all-embracing operation , the verdict would be that it had strayed so far from the basic human need , and so far from the intentions of those good and sincere people who have throughout that history struggled to maintain its integrity , that it might well be condemned outright as a story of failure unmatched by anything else that has ever happened on earth . |
| 16 | The ‘ unit of desire ’ however , is admitted to be a presumption , but if it were possible to prove with scientific exactitude that it really existed then it would not be within the province of religion at all , but of science . |
| 17 | If ever it were possible to agree upon a scheme of regional government , then there might be a basis for regional representation , but attempts at this have so far failed . |
| 18 | If it were possible to reconvene the superseded parliaments which originally agreed the terms of union , no doubt such variation could be effected . |
| 19 | If only it were possible to avoid these difficulties , and go island-hopping where they speak English , where the controllers are friendly and helpful , where all kinds of services are readily available , taxes are low and fuel plentiful . |
| 20 | And even if it were possible , making debtors pay 50p to prove that they had paid off their debts seems rather harshly discouraging for them — it would virtually boil down to imposing a line on them not because they had been debtors but because they had now paid their debts in full . |
| 21 | If it were possible to have sex with objects , then that would be a different matter ’ |
| 22 | If it were possible to have sex with objects , then that would be a different matter . ’ |
| 23 | She peered at its various buttons and dials and wondered if it were possible to wreck it by unintentional mis-setting . |
| 24 | ‘ If it were possible for the Football League to kick him out of the club , that 's what I want . |
| 25 | Even if it were possible to identify a certain causal agent inside someone 's head we certainly can not take off the top of the skull and mend it ! |
| 26 | As he wrote to Eulalia , abbess of Shaftesbury : ‘ I am so harassed in the archbishopric that if it were possible to do so without guilt , I would rather die than continue in it ’ . |
| 27 | Erlich thought that the Chief Inspector looked , if it were possible , more tired . |
| 28 | Thus , when Josias Nichols asked the parishioners of one parish in Kent ‘ whether it were possible for a man to live so uprightly that by well doing he might win heaven ’ , virtually all of them thought that this was so . |
| 29 | If it were possible in the residential care of young people to replace their sense of failure in personal relationships with successes , small or big , in other aspects of their lives , then the experience of residential care could be seen as beneficial in its own right , whatever the outcome of work to restore family relationships . |
| 30 | The social contract involves our sacrificing a portion of our personal liberty to achieve this end , but not out of some innate desire for the common good , since ‘ If it were possible , every one of us would prefer that the compacts binding others do not bind us ’ . |