Example sentences of "was [adv] [adj] to say " in BNC.

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1 ‘ It was so easy to say I wanted to go to Australia , without really knowing what he meant . ’
2 It was perhaps untrue to say that he had learned it ; it had learned him .
3 The inquest jury was only able to say John Newton died accidentally by falling through a carriage door .
4 ( 1 ) As he was obliged to do , the charging officer ( at a time when the Director was already interesting herself in the matter ) had told the applicant that he was not obliged to say anything ; yet only two weeks later the Serious Fraud Office was warning the applicant that he was going to be interviewed under compulsory powers ; and it was not much longer still before the office formally put him on notice that he would be asked questions which he would be compelled to answer on pain of punishment .
5 Andrew Sentance , economics director at the Confederation of British Industry , said the economy was balanced on a knife-edge but it was not possible to say whether it was heading irretrievably for recession .
6 No , it was not possible to say when a commercially viable FBR would be built .
7 Second , we found that ill health was an important factor in the decision to retire early , although it was not possible to say whether or not it was the overriding factor .
8 Merkur Island were not parties to any contract for the supply of towage services , so it was not possible to say that the purpose of the action was to prevent the supply of services between an employer who was party to the dispute ( Merkur Island ) and the employer under the contract of employment to which the secondary action related ( the tug owners ) .
9 The court in that case was quite happy to imply an air of confidence even though it was not possible to say how the confidential information ( that is , the prints taken from the engravings ) came into the defendant 's hands .
10 The lawyer said that it was not possible to say that the young people had suffered any permanent effects as a result of their experience .
11 In view of the plan to get rid of a large chunk of the assets , it was not possible to say what the net cost of the investment would be , he added .
12 If he had guessed that she had prior knowledge , he was not prepared to say so .
13 Despite three monthly falls in the number of jobless , the Treasury was not prepared to say that the worst was over .
14 A company spokesman was not able to say whether or not the two were connected .
15 She was not able to say when it left . ’
16 It was not fair to say that he– parents had had no time for her or for Joe ; all four of the family had worked together , and , as the settlement grew , they had enjoyed churchgoing and Easters and Christmases with their neighbours .
17 It was not true to say the Society had honoured Madame Ceauşescu , Mr Gow argued .
18 Brady was yesterday reluctant to say too much on the subject of his meeting with some board members , but it was obvious that the details of what ought to have been private business becoming public knowledge had disturbed the manager .
19 By the end of the 1980s it was nonetheless possible to say that the USSR was more directly involved in the affairs of the world community than at any previous time in her history , not only at a formal intergovernmental level but also through a variety of personal , commercial , sporting , scientific and other channels .
20 Hazlitt , facing death , was still able to say , proudly , that his last hopes or ideals were also his first ones .
21 Paige pressed her lips together tightly , knowing Lori was more inclined to say she was .
22 Apart from this it was probably true to say that the Truman Administration , well before it came to an end , had run out of ideas on Vietnam ; and it is probably true also that at the end of 1951 the weight of the French problem was beginning to shift : not so much how the US could get France out but how to keep her in .
23 Although it became heretical to deny that God could have created other worlds , it was as dangerous to say that He had .
24 When asked by an interviewer if he was pleased with the performance of the British plants , the President had replied that although past performance had been bad by traditional British standards , he was now happy to say that in recent months a marked improvement had taken place .
25 If Barth was now able to say at least some of the things that Brunner also wished to say , he was doing so within his own perspective — and demonstrating at the same , time that that perspective was not as narrow and restricted as Brunner had imagined it must be .
26 He added that he was particularly pleased to say that funds for the 40,000 sq ft facility had been generated totally by the Company and that none was borrowed money .
27 The girl was n't afraid to say what she believed .
28 I was n't able to say Mass .
29 Perhaps I was n't able to say earlier this evening , when your dear sweet face was looking at me .
30 The judge said it was quite impossible to say that any error was shown by these matters on the face of the determination , and that the parties were , on a matter of opinion , bound by the opinion of their chosen expert .
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