Example sentences of "[was/were] only a [noun sg] of [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | If it were only a matter of alcohol , would a body care ? |
| 2 | And which is natural because you know , the very early motor cars were only a sort of toy for the rich as it were and er when it came to you see er grocer 's vans or , or er laundry vans made out of old pr private cars . |
| 3 | You were only a sort of number in a bakery and er worked at a table along with the rest . |
| 4 | There was only a powdering of snow in the moat , no water . |
| 5 | ‘ After a week 's work it was satisfying to win against Brighton but it was only a glimmer of hope . ’ |
| 6 | it was only a couple of pound a yard . |
| 7 | Underpowered , overweight and outdated , the once 200 strong fleet , affectionately known as ‘ Whistlers ’ was in decline from the mid-1970s , and when major overhauls ceased at BREL Crewe in 1981 it was only a question of time before they disappeared first from top link Eastern Region duties , and finally in 1985 freight workings originating from the North West . |
| 8 | De Gaulle was not immortal , and so it was only a question of time before further attempts could be made to find a sheltered anchorage off the Western European shore . |
| 9 | The Midlands ' shop stewards knew it was only a question of time before the strike affected supplies to their own plants and those in the South , jeopardising the recovery plan which had been producing such vast improvements in performance . |
| 10 | It was only a question of time — unless help arrived . |
| 11 | Its value abroad was too high for the UK to compete , so its fall was only a question of time . |
| 12 | I knew from that moment that it was only a question of time — and perseverance on his part — before he would be completely cured . |
| 13 | It was only a question of time . |
| 14 | Not one of these men here came from a lower-lying farm ( except Donald McCulloch , and their place was only a slip of ground between the steep hill and the road ) . |
| 15 | My concern about the caravan site was only a kind of self-importance , and , as a result of my terrible selfishness poor Tom had been frightened in a way that might well scar him for much longer than that little stone . |
| 16 | She did not want him to think , she said , that she was really rich , that was only a kind of joke . |
| 17 | There was only a scattering of snow across the wheatlands , the area which needs it most to moisten the soil for the growing season . |
| 18 | Stan Abbott of Wensleydale Rail Association , which wants passenger trains reinstated on the line , said the new date was only a stay of execution and the pressure needed to be kept up . |
| 19 | Although Warwickshire won the NatWest Trophy in 1989 , it was only a note of encouragement for a county which had under-achieved in the championship for many years . |
| 20 | It just slows you down so that there are no longer enough hours in the day , and then some things get put off and other things are only half-completed and you 're told you need help — an assistant priest , no less , to concentrate , as the Bishop with his unfailing instinct for the wrong word put it , on ‘ the donkey work ’ ( well , perhaps after all I was only a beast of burden , Father McGiff conceded ) to give you ‘ a chance to relax , take life more easily , think a bit more , pray a bit more , meditate ’ . |
| 21 | Fortunately there was only a trickle of water entering the opening . |
| 22 | The petrol tank exploded in a bloom of yellow and red , and then there was only a lot of smoke , with bits falling : bits of wing , bits of wheel , bits of pilot . |
| 23 | In the host mud , there was only a trace of PLTE at the minimum detectable limit and there was roughly a thousand times less PLDE than PLFA ( Table 1 ) . |
| 24 | I remember an officer diving into a culvert during a raid — he thought he had been hit again but it was only a lump of mud on his seat ! |
| 25 | Even so , I thought on occasion there had been a loss ; nothing necessarily to do with oxygen starvation but just as a result of the experience , the shock of his cold journey , slipping away beneath the grey lid of ice ( and perhaps , I told myself in later years , it was only a loss of ignorance , a loss of folly , and so no bad thing ) . |
| 26 | It was only a matter of degree . |
| 27 | His violent death was only a matter of course given the way he lived . |
| 28 | Others realized that it was only a matter of patience to wait for the guaranteed escape which would be provided by the end of the war , and as the war dragged on more and more people became converted to this view . |
| 29 | It was only a matter of will . |
| 30 | However , it was only a matter of timing . |