Example sentences of "he [modal v] [verb] [been] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next pageNo | Sentence |
---|---|
1 | Lyfing was later a pluralist with no good reputation , but it is worth noting the Chronicle D text 's description of him as " the eloquent bishop " : like Wulfstan , he may have been a notable preacher . |
2 | He may have been an outstanding goalkeeper but he was hardly a product of the Harvard Business School . |
3 | He must have been a strong contender for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar but then again , the history of the academy awards is littered with the words ‘ if only … ’ |
4 | This tall and handsome man , not so many years older than himself — he must have been a mere boy when McAllister was conceived — could only be by his manner , and his resemblance to her , McAllister 's formidable father , so often referred to . |
5 | He must have been a good bit older than her . |
6 | He must have been a monied gentleman because it was a marvellous house . |
7 | And , indeed , he must have been a tough little lad to have survived it all , though it was to take its toll on him eventually ; by the time he died in far-away London at the age of 29 he had lived through some very harsh times indeed . |
8 | He must have been a remarkable man , because when his aircraft was shot down he lost his right hand but before many months had passed he was back on his squadron with a hook on his right arm , and although I am not one hundred percent sure of my facts here , I believe he went back on operations as a navigator or air gunner . |
9 | I think , when I think it since , I think he must have been a remarkable man to work and slave like that . |
10 | He must have been a natural for the job , being one of the very few Greeks with an appropriate qualification . |
11 | The way Pomiane chose to convey the necessary quantity to his listeners — he must have been a compelling radio talker — and later to his readers was in terms of " a bunch as large as a bunch of violets " . |
12 | ‘ Oh , yes , please ! ’ returned Sally-Anne , and then caught her breath again , when he turned his head , presenting her with his beautiful , undamaged profile — he must have been an absolute stunner before he was disfigured . |
13 | He must have been an eligible enough bachelor : the son of a fairly prosperous artisan family , trained as a craftsman , and quite a handsome chap into the bargain . |
14 | He might have been a natural broadcaster but for the quality of his scripts . |
15 | He might have been a minor orator , not quite in the senate , nor yet on the stage , more likely at the Bar of some prosperous provincial town ; in fact he had made his early and relatively modest pile in some wholesale business . |
16 | He had to sing properly in Zarewitsch and one was reminded yet again that he could have been a great singer if only he had tried . |
17 | He could have been a handsome man . |
18 | If he had n't died of that heart attack , he 'd have been a mental wreck . ’ |
19 | ‘ He 'd have been an interesting man , ’ he said to Florence Ames . |
20 | Naturally , Greenidge tried to emulate Richards which , when things went well , was fine , but when they did not it meant that , for a while , he gained a reputation for not being over-reliable ; perhaps he suffered from trying to hit the ball too hard , for there were plenty of people who felt that he would have been a better player had he not tried to ‘ bury the ball into the wall of some distant building ’ ( his own words ) at every opportunity . |
21 | 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 " . |
22 | He would have been a good schoolmaster , I thought : gentle , precise , dry-humoured . |
23 | Thiercelin was somewhat less interested than he would have been a few days earlier . |
24 | While Chiang had little public support , he would have been a popular choice in the National Assembly , the veteran-dominated body responsible for electing the President . |
25 | He would have been a natural replacement for Blair , but in another cruel twist , Gallagher , a university student in Northampton , has committed himself to the English club this season and will not be available to Dungannon for the league . |
26 | But it was shrewd of Joseph to go temporarily AWOL , absent-without-leave , for he would have been an undoubted target for the flak being hurled by an angry Kinnear . |
27 | If B. Hunslett had been born 50 years ago , he would have been an ideal candidate for the Hitler Youth Movement . |
28 | Wihtred was in his sixth regnal year in April 697 ( CS 96 : S 18 ) , so he secured the kingship either early in 692 or after April 691 , when he will have been a young man of about 20 . |