Example sentences of "before they could [vb infin] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | He raised his gun , pointed it directly at Barbara and , before they could react … pulled the trigger . |
| 2 | Both Chris Rea and David Coverdale , of Whitesnake fame , entertained regulars in the days before they could command huge audiences at concert halls throughout the world . |
| 3 | Running , screaming the first time and left two dead before they could creep back out of range of John Russell 's Spencer . |
| 4 | He was on them before they could move , blundering.down the hall and flinging the door wide . |
| 5 | Before they could move , someone pushed past them and shambled off down the corridor . |
| 6 | He shot the girl and the bearded man before they could move . |
| 7 | Reid opened the door to them before they could knock . |
| 8 | She had completed the agreed term of admission of two months and in accordance with the rules of the institution , the parish officers were asked to remove her ; before they could do so however , Mary Storey had died . |
| 9 | Aw , c'm on , it was just like that in Australia not long ago : one of the wire services reports in a condescending way that under local law , the National Institute of Industrial Property of Brazil recognises only the principle of priority in brand names , so that companies like IBM Corp , Xerox Corp and Sony Corp have had to ‘ buy back ’ their names before they could do business under them in Brazil ; the US is pressing Brazil to change the law to protect internationally recognised brand names — but it is not so long ago that , legend has it , an enterprising travelling Australian spotted that car hire was becoming big business , so when he got home , he registered the names Hertz and Avis , sold the Hertz name back to the company when it wanted to set up in Australia — and then used the cash he got from Hertz to set up the Avis concession in Australia . |
| 10 | She had been keen on the idea and had talked of planting more spruce for the specific object of selling them as trees at Christmas but she had died before they could do anything more about it . |
| 11 | The site of the battle of ‘ Heavenfield ’ , in the vicinity of Hexham , shows that Cadwallon advanced north against Oswald , presumably intending to deal with the Bernician aethelings before they could consolidate their position further . |
| 12 | There was no proper funeral , as there had been no proper wedding ceremony ; they simply hauled the waterlogged body onto a bonfire of driftwood , and even though the sea wind at dawn had made the fire hot enough to break the stones of the beach , it was six hours before the body was gone , and then they had to wait a whole day before they could rake the ashes for his bones and send them to her . |
| 13 | With his boot , he stamped out the tiny flames before they could grow . |
| 14 | And then , before they could answer , she had turned away and was heading back towards the bridge . |
| 15 | In other words they needed to experience the ‘ sanctuary game ’ before they could cope with a ‘ breaking of sanctuary game ’ . |
| 16 | All of the babies were successfully trained before they could walk although there were sporadic accidents if the potty was completely out of sight . |
| 17 | I had to repeat very simple sentences , six , seven , eight , ten times before they could repeat it . |
| 18 | ‘ Do you think I would n't have died before they could dishonour you so ? ’ |
| 19 | But the crash happened before they could stop him . |
| 20 | It then comes to the practical point , Citing German experience to show that ‘ there was a tendency for employee and shareholder representatives to vote and act in distinct groups ’ , they add that the presence of co-opted directors on the board would mean that either group would at the very least need to gain the support of the majority of the directors before they could carry or veto a proposal . |
| 21 | Citing " informed Sudanese sources " the Egyptian paper Al-Sharq al-Awsat of Feb. 6 reported that 41 military officers had been arrested on Feb. 2 before they could carry out a plan to bomb the general staff headquarters during a meeting of the country 's military leaders . |
| 22 | They had to get rid of a leader before they could bring themselves to admit that the poll tax was a mistake and I ca n't see John Major going before he loses the next election . |
| 23 | They suffered years of guilt and dissimulation before they could announce their own agnosticism or adamant disbelief . |
| 24 | The blindfolds were removed and their ankles were untied but it was minutes before they could stand , much less walk . |
| 25 | Det Sgt Martyn Lowrie said officers needed to talk to victim Paul Deacon , 33 , before they could decide whether the blaze at his first floor flat in Ford Way , Bishop Auckland , could have been started deliberately . |
| 26 | I was nearly chucked out for that , I left before they could chuck me out , actually . |
| 27 | They would not expect the taking of Perth and Scone to be easy , and night would fall long before they could send back to clear out Abernethy and Forteviot , or before they could press on the further twelve miles to Dunkeld . |
| 28 | The 2 RRP patrol gave chase , but a white car pulled away before they could reach them . |
| 29 | Before they could reach him , however , he was borne aloft like a javelin and carried to the quayside a few yards away where he was dumped unceremoniously into the murky waters to a great cheer from those who were close enough to witness the event . |
| 30 | But before they could reach the screen , the bittern had stepped , heron-like , slow , deliberate , into the tyke , and across to the other side . |