Example sentences of "had been [v-ing] [prep] [det] [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Eventually an old gentleman who had been listening with much amusement to their discussion said that what mattered was not whether the earthworm has an immortal soul but whether it has a purpose . |
| 2 | Both countries had been speaking for some time of their desire to improve relations , without making much progress . |
| 3 | It seemed incredible to Tug that only five minutes before he had been calling her Ma and they had been grinning at each other . |
| 4 | This was reportedly a concession which US oil companies had been seeking for some time . |
| 5 | For the first time she recognized that secretly she had been looking for some way out for herself and Midnight . |
| 6 | The City and the Confederation of British Industry had been looking for some indication of earlier participation in the exchange rate mechanism of the EMS . |
| 7 | The phone had been ringing for some time . |
| 8 | By the time I was twelve years old I had been thinking for some time about getting a bird of my own . |
| 9 | In fact , he was so happy with the idea that had come to him from the writer , Peter Shaffer , he began the serious rethink of his career which friends like Lance Percival had been thinking for some time was overdue . |
| 10 | The conference of 1923 was the culmination of long planning on the part of Lord Darlington ; indeed , in retrospect , one can see clearly how his lordship had been moving towards this point from some three years or so before . |
| 11 | Ian Clark and Nicholas Wheeler demonstrate the degree to which British thinking had been moving in this direction since 1943 . |
| 12 | There they brought the coracle ashore lightly , and drew in , with reluctance and the reverence of finality , what they had been hunting with such assiduity , and so persistently hoped they would not find . |
| 13 | Something inside had been hoping against all logic for a different answer . |
| 14 | But suddenly all that rational thinking that she had been clinging to all night was gone , gone in a puff of smoke , gone in one long and loud roll of thunder . |
| 15 | In his own way , Ted had been building for this moment too . |
| 16 | I decided to go back to the village , to thank him for all his help , and to carry out a plan I had been considering for some time . |
| 17 | The AEEU Scottish organiser , Harry McLevy , said he thought both sides had been inching towards some sort of agreement . |
| 18 | The court was told Tania had been living with another man , Robert Cross , for five months . |
| 19 | In 1907 Picasso and Braque had been living near each other in Montmartre for some time , and after 1908 began meeting daily to talk , visit the galleries and museums , and to examine each other 's work . |
| 20 | Abingdon 's trade had been waning for some time , with its fulling mills lying in ruins and unemployment rife by 1538 . |
| 21 | The two cousins had been writing to each other in secret for several weeks , and Cathy had used the milkman as a messenger . |
| 22 | Mr Campbell said that during the first incident , when Mr Friel and the two younger accused had been shouting at each other in the shopping centre , the lawyer had struck the 15-year-old on the face with the dog leash . |
| 23 | By now he had had confirmation of the news he had been expecting for some time . |
| 24 | ‘ Our information is that Mr Evans left the Club in order to go and see what was delaying the arrival of his wife whom he had been expecting for some time . ’ |
| 25 | The document inevitably evoked much discussion within the Principality , and the WJEC , for example , responded by advocating a solution which it had been cherishing for some time , namely the creation of a small advisory body made up of representatives of three bodies : the Welsh Office ; the Welsh Counties Committee , consisting of local authority representatives ; and the WJEC . |
| 26 | The Schuman Plan was based on ideas which had been circulating for some time but was devised in detail by Jean Monnet , who was in charge of France 's economic modernisation programme . |
| 27 | Dowd had been waiting for this man , Matthias McGann , to say his piece . |
| 28 | Tuesday — could it really be only Tuesday when now every cell of her body was alight with a feedback intelligence that told her she had been waiting for this man all her life … |
| 29 | As everyone turned to look at him , Jinny realized that he had been waiting for this moment all the time he was explaining his plan . |
| 30 | It was as if she had been waiting for this moment for four years or more . |