Example sentences of "[pron] [vb past] [be] able [verb] a " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | I wished I 'd been able to take a photograph of gaunt-face , but I 'd been more keen to listen . |
| 2 | If I had been able to see a copy of the local Communist party paper , I would have learned that I — with many others — had been unmasked as a conspirator and an enemy of the state . |
| 3 | It was the first time I had been able to attend a pub meet at this particular hostelry , and I thought it was very nice , full of young people without being a noisy ‘ fun pub ’ . |
| 4 | I had been able to have a couple of hours ' sleep here and there since the landings and , most important , I was able to move around more or less as I wanted to . |
| 5 | During the previous six months I had been able to keep a more watchful eye on the whereabouts of the elusive Charlie , thanks to the help of a young officer Daphne had introduced me to who worked in the War Office . |
| 6 | Before returning from England I had been able to recruit a very competent English journalist , F.W. Benton , who soon improved the quality of our English daily . |
| 7 | Over New Year I had been able to escape a constant anxiety that time was running out . |
| 8 | ‘ Yes , of course we 'd have carried on if we 'd been able to make a living at it . |
| 9 | Thanks to Charlie boy , they 'd been able to splash a bit on the wedding and Marilyn could have the white satin and the four bridesmaids she 'd set her heart on . |
| 10 | Three weeks earlier they had flown out to Rome where they had been able to spend a few days as guests of the staff and students at the Venerable English College before setting out from St Peter 's Square on Wednesday , 30th September to cycle more than 1,700 miles across Italy , Switzerland and France , then up through England . |
| 11 | They had been able to build a rapport with him , however . |
| 12 | Giving graphic details of the 11-hour stand-off , Capt Goebel said Demeke had held the gun to his head or that of his co-pilot for most of the flight , but they had been able to build a rapport with him . |
| 13 | Barely more than half an hour before , he 'd driven into the village on an errand for the Venetz sisters and although he saw almost no one along the way , he 'd been able to sense a tension in the air ; it was a faint background buzz like that of power lines in the rain . |
| 14 | Before going he had told us that firstly , all his carp had been caught on sweetcorn and bread and although fishing with boilies on one rod all week he had been able to get a take , in his words they just did not seem to eat them ; secondly , although there were plenty of carp on the surface they did not seem the least bit interested in floaters , and thirdly he was at a loss to know what one needed to do to put a cat on the bank . |
| 15 | So far he had been able to maintain a claim to even-handedness on the grounds that he treated both sides , Moslems and Copt , with equal severity . |