Example sentences of "[v-ing] to [pn reflx] [prep] [art] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | ‘ You do enough mumbling to yourself at the back of the shop when the child 's around , but when it comes to something constructive … ’ |
| 2 | When Blanche and Dexter arrived he was mumbling to himself on the side of the bed , hands clasped in the lap of his dressing gown . |
| 3 | The temple bells were clanging to their climax as Ramlal hurried past the door , clutching his precious document , and laughing to himself at the thought that the God had got nothing from him at all . |
| 4 | Carrefour sat on a low wall that stretched out from the side of a building , leaning his back against the building 's wall and tootling to himself on a child 's flute . |
| 5 | MUR ON TIG WON The disagreeable experience of listening to oneself in the middle of a long speech and neither understanding what one is saying nor enjoying the manner in which it is being said ; a foreign accent ; a lion breaking wind after the evening repast |
| 6 | But finally a muddy old train trundles in from deepest Essex , chattering to itself like the Little Red Engine : ‘ I 'm a good little engine , I climbed over the hill . ’ |
| 7 | ‘ To heaven , of course , ’ said Dotty tartly , seizing an enormous wooden spoon and advancing upon an iron saucepan which had been rumbling and grumbling to itself throughout the conversation . |
| 8 | There was no sound except for a pigeon burbling to itself in the road , pecking at horse-dung . |
| 9 | ‘ You know , Dorothy , you and I have one thing in common , ’ I remember saying to myself in a Dutch accent , ‘ we both only got as far as Harwich . ’ |
| 10 | Her shriek awakened the house , and Coleridge , who had been asleep when his father returned , knew at once what it signified , saying to himself in the darkness , ‘ Papa is dead . ’ |
| 11 | The baby was lying in a cradle of osiers , crooning to itself like a wood-pigeon . |
| 12 | WE are going to stop apologising to ourselves for the fact that it takes money to run this organisation . |
| 13 | I have seen him striding through Soho eating a sandwich and talking to himself at the same time , oblivious to the cars and traffic and noise around him , deep in thought . |
| 14 | In this case , as in the poems discussed by Green , no addressee is mentioned or seems to be present within the evoked setting , so that the poetic persona can be imagined either as a thinking mind or as a speaker talking to himself in a solitary environment . |
| 15 | Later that evening , going on my farewell walk round Cuzco , I fought to be positive , talking to myself like a character in a novel I was reading at the time , David Copperfield 's aunt . |
| 16 | My mother was the sort of person who regards talking to yourself as the first sign of madness . |
| 17 | she were talking to herself in the end ! |
| 18 | Anyway , I got up , and went about my chores , feeding the cats and brewing tea for the rest of the still-slumbering inhabitants of my humble home in order to get them up and out to school and work , and I was thinking to myself as the kettle boiled that here was the start of yet another ordinary damned day , when the post clanked and slithered through the letter box . |
| 19 | The former health secretary brushed aside talk of a demotion by referring to himself as the new Minister for Majorism . |
| 20 | When referring to yourself as the writer , it is possible to use a range of forms : " I " , " we " , " one " , " the present author " , etc . |
| 21 | Annie recalls , in fictional form , the event which led to the rift in their friendship , apparently referring to herself in the third person . |
| 22 | Then , on a sunny day in April , when the bees were visiting the hedgerows and the robins were flying back and forth with their beaks full of moss and feathers , she came down from Roscarrock Hall humming to herself without a serious thought in her head — when suddenly , as she rounded a corner , there was Tristram , his face sun-tanned , his shirt open and his dark brown hair thick and tangled round his face . |
| 23 | I 'm smiling to myself at the kitchen table now . |
| 24 | I 'm smiling to myself in the darkness , Timmy — I wish you could see me . |
| 25 | Smiling to herself at the thought , and confident that it was now too late to be interrupted further , Alexandra went upstairs . |
| 26 | ‘ I was just telling you that I reckon it was a good idea — to wait a day before going back to New York , ’ Carole repeated , smiling to herself at the other girl 's slightly abstracted expression . |
| 27 | I recognised those questions as pertaining to myself at the time I became anorexic . |