Example sentences of "[pers pn] had be a [adj] " in BNC.
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1 | With regard to point ( c ) , I had been a teensy bit lazy in the last few maths lessons , not having worked on the set tasks with much enthusiasm at all . |
2 | I understood , you see , because I had been a provincial myself . |
3 | I knew later I had been a damn fool but … |
4 | Was this the point at which to say that I had been a professional actress for over thirty years and was well aware of the mechanics etc ? |
5 | Water came from the taps and sat in an unnerving basin shape : the blue plastic failed to dematerialise from the world where I had been a grateful and temporary guest since the moment five years ago when I had vouchsafed in the sight of the God of men Ido . |
6 | Although Fair Isle is officially part of Shetland , and I had been a keen birdwatcher since I was a boy , I had never had the opportunity to visit the island until I had started to work for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds . |
7 | She told us : ‘ The first time I saw this lady from the Foundation for Global Unity in Canterbury , she told me I had been a young boy in one of the Balkan countries , where slaves were being used to cut down all the trees . |
8 | In the middle of many clashes and difficulties were the men whom I had met , and to whom , if I had been a true friend , I might have given something of the faith and spirit which could have helped them find a better way for their people . |
9 | I had been a dutiful daughter , an elegant accessory , a nurse and business manager in the service of three men . |
10 | I have sometimes gone into it when the King was absent from Delhi and once pretty far I thought , for the purpose of giving my advice in the case of a great lady so ill that she could not be moved to the outward gate ; but a Kachemire shawl covered my head , hanging like a large scarfe down to my feet , and a eunuch led me by the hand , as if I had been a blind man . |
11 | By the time I left his office , I felt as if I had been an established outside-left for years , ’ Bastin later recalled . |
12 | ‘ I had never been interviewed before but felt really at ease , mainly because I discovered I had been an informal link worker all my life ! |
13 | ’ So this particular sergeant who had been a PC when I had been an acting sergeant , sat alongside me . |
14 | My personal life had been a disaster : I had had a lousy relationship with my mother ; been frightened of my father ; from time to time my marriage had been close to the rocks and I had been an uncaring father . |
15 | I did n't have a protective big brother : all I had was a small sister . |
16 | She had been a regular person once , but that had been before the voices started up in her head , before the dead woman got out of her rocking chair , before the preacherman reached into her mind and gave it a sharp twist … |
17 | In any case , even if she had been a skilled charmer it was not possible to allure somebody who slashed back at you like a master swordsman and drove the point in . |
18 | Until she had met him , she had been a friendly , easygoing girl , with a few not-very-serious relationships behind her , and a very balanced view of life . |
19 | If she had been a religious person she would have put it down to retribution for her sins , but she had lost whatever faith she had had in her years as the Madam of Dublin 's most fashionable brothel . |
20 | She had been a battered baby , grew up in a succession of foster homes , and then married a man who regularly beat her up . |
21 | He held her against him , nursing her as though she had been a small child , while looking down into her face . |
22 | ‘ Gross exaggeration , ’ Fabia laughed , but could n't deny that she had been a great fan of the Czech composers , and still was . |
23 | ‘ She had been a lifelong friend of the Abrams , ’ Mr Burke said . |
24 | When she had been a tiny child , and Fenna had still been a small , manageable and undemanding dragon she had , often spoken of him , to her mother who had grinned , to her grandmother who had smiled , and to her schoolteachers and friends , who had laughed indulgently . |
25 | Her senior by fourteen years , she had been a splendid nursemaid and even after marriage , while rearing her own family , Edna had still managed to do part-time cleaning and a weekly wash in the Tremayne household . |
26 | Personally , I think it was a merciful release both for my aunt and for my Uncle Félix , seeing that she had been a helpless invalid for so long . |
27 | Just as she had been a conscientious dancer , she now became an equally conscientious needlewoman . |
28 | Still , she thought , bracing her shoulders , if she had been a real mother she would have had to endure many such problems with a teenage daughter . |
29 | She had been a major influence in my life , and helped me through the rough patches . |
30 | A case of gamekeeper turned poacher , given that she had been a fast-stream entrant to the Treasury , much of whose function it is to resist that sort of demand . ’ |