Example sentences of "his [noun sg] have [been] a [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The policeman was grieving for his Scotch terrier , while the dragoman — a fellow with big , prominent eyes like a lobster 's — had proved singularly incompetent throughout the trip ; even his cooking had been a failure . |
| 2 | His abduction had been a blow to their attempts to show that they were bringing Lebanon to order . |
| 3 | His batting has been a pleasure to watch , elegant , artistic and poised , strong on both sides of the wicket , equally happy using his feet to the spinners or hooking the fast men . |
| 4 | She was on the point of abandoning the plan when a neighbour , a solicitor who had been advising the magazine , explained that Neville and company were respectable young men really , from decent backgrounds — after all , his father had been a colonel in the Australian Army . |
| 5 | If his father had been a hardnose Republican , he had been a very strange one , for the cash side of the firm , the accountancy , was run by a level-headed Protestant called Tom Holdfast , and a couple of the men were also Protestants . |
| 6 | As Keith explained , it was not any easier for him to take up employment with the RAF because his father had been a career forces man . |
| 7 | The product of a mixed marriage , his father had been a Muscovite , his mother an Uzbek Muslim . |
| 8 | His sisters had curtsied to the vicar ; his brothers had gone to war in 1914 , and one of them had died at Vimy Ridge ; his father had been a farm bailiff and died in 1911 after being bitten by a horse ( misnamed Lucky ) . |
| 9 | Nigel mentioned that his father had been a teacher in Zambia , and then adopting a humorous intonation , as if to cover himself , he added that some ‘ of these chappies were none too bright ’ . |
| 10 | ‘ His father had been a solicitor in Medewich before he died and he knew the Bishop , so he came here as an administrator . |
| 11 | He claimed that his life had been a misery since he sold the recording of Di talking to her friend James Gilbey . |
| 12 | Throughout his career Chaplin took every care to sustain the idea that his life had been a kind of Victorian romance and perhaps if we allow for certain embellishments we can accept this interpretation as legitimate . |
| 13 | He told the paper that his life had been a torment after his arrest and explained that a simple error had led to his misfortune . |
| 14 | His voice has been a part of pop music almost since the beginning . |
| 15 | His youth had been a misery to him . |
| 16 | His grandfather had been a master baker and , in one of the many family stories Mark had heard at his grandfather 's knee , he had been told of how his great-grandfather had served Benjamin Disraeli with a standing daily order of twelve French loaves , burnt and rasped . |
| 17 | Alec also recalls that his grandfather had been a bank boy with the company for a short period many years before he and Jean began their employment . |
| 18 | For his predecessor had been a minor , the only surviving child of the eldest of three brothers . |
| 19 | Noel Hayes , a stockbroker who in his time has been a building analyst and up until the beginnig of this year was head of sales at Citicorp-Scrimgeour Vickers , becomes chief executive and Sam Oxford , the former chairman of Magnet & Southerns , joins as a non-executive director . |
| 20 | But half an hour later he again addressed the Conference on European Security and said his speech had been a spoof . |
| 21 | Lawyer Lewis Unglesby told the jury at Baton Rouge , Louisiana , at Rodney Peairs ' trial for manslaughter , that his client had been a victim of crimes before and , fearing for his safety , had acted in self-defence when Yoshihiro Hattori continued to approach him after being warned to stop . |
| 22 | Mellor 's wife Judith and son Freddie , eight , watched from a gallery as the ex-Minister said his family had been a tower of strength throughout the whole ‘ sorry mess . ’ |