Example sentences of "it [not/n't] [prep] a [adj] [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | He could , Dalgliesh thought , have been judged an outstandingly handsome man were it not for a certain incongruity of feature , perhaps the contrast between the fineness of the skin stretched over the flat cheekbones and the strong jutting jaw and uncompromising mouth . |
| 2 | He admired gnarled oak , beeches and silver birch , but occasionally he complained bitterly about bad planting , as when looking towards Langdale from near Tilberthwaite : ‘ Langdale on the right would finish the whole into a pleasant landscape , were it not for a frightful plantation of firs blotting out the pass on Wrynose . ’ |
| 3 | Were it not for a severe epidemic of puerperal fever ( ‘ childbed fever ’ ) in Aberdeen , which lasted from December 1789 to March 1792 , Gordon might well have been forgotten . |
| 4 | The top is not visible from the road , and were it not for a sizeable cairn you could miss it altogether . |
| 5 | ‘ We do not object to the development , but why is it not on a derelict piece of industrial land ? ’ |
| 6 | Suppose that I have a sudden impulse to settle when I retire in the village where I was born ; but reality breaks in , I recognize that I had better remember it not as a nostalgic vision but as I indeed saw it before experiencing the city , admit to myself that it will have changed beyond recognition , try to anticipate living in it not as I am now but as an old man who no longer easily makes new friends , try to see myself through the villagers ' eyes as already a stranger who may no longer deserve a welcome . |
| 7 | What I 'm trying to say is that it 's providing for people already here that I think should be a major item of population policy , and doing it not in a massive world sense , or even a country , but in particular areas as well . |