Example sentences of "he [vb past] [be] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Spending even this short amount of time with him had been a big mistake . |
| 2 | He wanted to blurt out that she looked beautiful in blue , that he 'd like to kill the man who 'd been in her flat the previous evening , that he hoped her date with him had been a miserable failure , that he had hardly slept a wink all night , beside himself with jealousy . |
| 3 | Her feelings for him had been a pallid thing beside what she now felt for Fen . |
| 4 | What he produced was a gen-u-ine statement of skin ; a document to be placed alongside other such documents , delivered with the same How's-your-father flourish as a graffiti slogan on a council estate wall or a boot planted through an Asian 's shop window or a gallon of petrol poured through the letterbox of a Bengali family 's home . |
| 5 | McKenzie was urged to play a season with the Randwick Colts ( under-20 ) and the first player he met was a burly hooker called Kearns , who like Farr-Jones , was unable to win a first XV team berth at prestigious Newington College . |
| 6 | This would always give Felix a cheeky look , even when he stopped being a black kid and started being a black man . |
| 7 | The lawyer had always maintained that the money he received was a legitimate success fee for the vital role he played in the bitterly fought takeover battle . |
| 8 | He 'd been a Labour Party member too . |
| 9 | When she 'd first qualified in forensic medicine he 'd been a young sergeant . |
| 10 | Given that he had half frightened her to death to begin with , he 'd been a gentle lover too , she recalled , a tender smile playing around her mouth . |
| 11 | He 'd been a uniformed inspector with the Soho Unit for nearly three years , and was probably due for a move ; no sign of it yet , but there was most likely a memo waiting deep in the machinery , easing its way out at the speed of a splinter . |
| 12 | He 'd been a successful amateur boxer before he joined Plummer 's organisation . |
| 13 | She had loved him while hating him , had loved him when he 'd been a perfect swine . |
| 14 | Strong hints about his IRA sympathies , as if everyone did n't know he 'd been a self-proclaimed Sinn Feinner since he was a youngster . |
| 15 | He 'd been a hard man to work for , but he taught Billy everything he knew about that garden and how to take care of it . |
| 16 | He was n't getting any younger , after all , and he 'd been a hard worker all his life . |
| 17 | He 'd been a social worker , then a deputy director of social services — he 'd been fired after the famous ‘ babyswap ’ scandal , but that was how he came to be taken up by FAMILY . |
| 18 | When we were there Stan was with us and he 'd been a few times to Brussels to with the Labour Party and , and he said oh it 's great ! |
| 19 | He had n't looked after her properly , he 'd been a bad father . |
| 20 | He spoke very warmly of his parents , but I felt that he 'd been a lonely child . |
| 21 | As to his feelings for Madeleine , nurtured since he 'd been a little boy , even were they to be revived , it seemed unlikely Madeleine would respond to him . |
| 22 | If he 'd been a Sikh it might have been different . |
| 23 | But from the moment she 'd come downstairs he 'd been a different man . |
| 24 | Really sad case , that , because he 'd been a fine man . |
| 25 | He 'd been a pharmaceutical salesman , mad keen on amateur dramatics . |
| 26 | A Turkish print worker alleged a Harley Street doctor paid £2,500 for him to donate a kidney to a patient he believed was a fellow countryman . |
| 27 | ATURKISH print worker alleged yesterday that a Harley Street doctor paid £2,500 for him to donate a kidney to a patient whom he believed was a fellow countryman . |
| 28 | Richard Baxter was further saddened by the loss of thousands of precious books in the fire , which he believed was a great loss to ‘ piety and learning ’ . |
| 29 | When I used to ask him where he was going he would tell me ‘ To Phucke ’ , which he claimed was a small town to the north of Inverness . |
| 30 | In the Surrey side he inherited were a few reputedly awkward personalities . |