Example sentences of "he would have [been] a [noun] " in BNC.

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1 As for Dennis , well , after that killing him would have been a kindness , would n't it ?
2 ‘ In any other time he would have been a pirate or a highwayman . ’
3 Tukalo — ‘ he would have been a hero , ’ noted Rutherford sympathetically — did not enjoy such fortune and was engulfed by the visitors ' defence who pirated possession to clear .
4 Without the NHS he would have been a cripple .
5 This was just as well , because as a native he would have been a bit hard to take .
6 That is , if then Q and If Q then R , where these are such conditionals , entail If P then R. It has sometimes been said that certain other " if " statements are not transitive — for example , " If J. Edgar Hoover had been born a Russian , he would have been a Communist " , " If he had been a Communist , he would have been a traitor " , and " If he had been born a Russian , he would have been a traitor " .
7 That is , if then Q and If Q then R , where these are such conditionals , entail If P then R. It has sometimes been said that certain other " if " statements are not transitive — for example , " If J. Edgar Hoover had been born a Russian , he would have been a Communist " , " If he had been a Communist , he would have been a traitor " , and " If he had been born a Russian , he would have been a traitor " .
8 The whole operation was performed with such straightforward openness that I believe , had he observed my slight embarrassment — which stemmed chiefly from the unexpectedness of the action — he would have been a trifle put out .
9 If he had , he would have been a disaster in the smoke-filled rooms but a darling with the tabloids and the public .
10 John-William , who knew that he would have been a Chartist himself had he remained a poor man , felt sorry about that death .
11 With regular top-level practice he would have been a world beater ’ .
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