Example sentences of "was [not/n't] so [adj] [to-vb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | In order not to seem too dictatorial , and perhaps to conform with some grass-roots grocer-Tory image , ministers have sometimes spoken as if their aim was not so much to take powers to themselves ( and thus away from Local Authorities ) as to give powers to parents . |
| 2 | Blown-up extracts from contemporary Paris newspapers , on panels larger than the works of art on display , suggest that the district 's sudden fame was not so much to do with art or philosophy , but the novel phenomenon of la jeunesse . |
| 3 | With boys in unskilled employment , the intention was not so much to impart skills , ‘ as to retain [ them ] at an impressionable age and to mould and discipline their character ’ , and in such cases specialization or technical training would be out of place . |
| 4 | She would have known , as Diana discovered too late , that Camilla 's famous vetting of Charles 's girlfriends was not so much to assess their potential as a royal bride but to see how much of a threat they posed to her friendship with Prince Charles . |
| 5 | The father 's real purpose in allowing me to visit the family was not so much to get help , but to recoup the £40 he had spent on satanist scriptures , which he wanted to sell to me . |
| 6 | The purpose was not so much to reproduce the direction of artists as to circumvent the unnatural effect of ‘ music coming out of a hole ’ . |
| 7 | Relaxing a little , she told herself that having discovered the identity of R , it was not so essential to grill him after all ; but on the other hand , there was still the matter of the concealed photograph to be explained . |
| 8 | In 1922 it was not so easy to predict crop yields as it is today . |
| 9 | But it was not so easy to brush him off afterwards . |
| 10 | It clearly had very different meanings in these teachers ' minds , but although we talked about these together , it was not so easy to put them into words . |
| 11 | Gazzer took a step backwards , disturbed to find that he felt threatened : she was not so easy to manage after all . |
| 12 | It was not so easy to find the cemetery where Mrs Zamzam 's father was buried . |
| 13 | But it was not so easy to get rid of the cosmological constant . |
| 14 | Again she considered that she may be falling in love with him but this time she was not so quick to dismiss it . |
| 15 | The car was not so exciting to drive as the Mascot , but he had to admit that it was less demanding . |
| 16 | It was not so difficult to leave Roundhay . |
| 17 | Having once negotiated the hurdle of the initial course it was not so difficult to persuade those who held the money bags to allow me to fly the aircraft every six months or so to maintain some sort of standard in flying up-to-date jet transports . |
| 18 | And er the reason we took the biggest jug we could find it was n't so much to feed two children in the house you 're parents also wanted a bowl because believe me in those times we were we were hungry , we were dear , very very hungry . |
| 19 | ‘ Well , I must admit he was n't so keen to start with , ’ Jackie said . |
| 20 | It was n't so hard to do , the signposts were all in place and legible , yet he could not get his bearings . |
| 21 | They the frame was er constructed on on er two trestles and , of course , er you put your trestles so that you could balance it , so that it was n't so heavy to lift . |