Example sentences of "had [adv] been [verb] [noun pl] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Once again the solicitor representing them said that there was not and that his clients had put him in difficulties , as he had only been given instructions a week before . |
| 2 | The photographer had obviously been studying portraits of Betty Grable and other film stars and was trying to be very artistic , with much back lighting and fluffing out of hair , and I must admit that my hair ( touching my shoulders , naturally ) , did look nice . |
| 3 | Before the move he had already been planting exotics in the sheltered garden with a slope to the south-west ; an ideal situation for the rare trees he collected over the next twenty years . |
| 4 | As soon as she entered the room she knew that Clare had already been telling tales ; or at least complaining to her colleagues . |
| 5 | In later life he seems to have returned to his early interest in astronomy ( on which he had already been writing papers at the age of eighteen ) . |
| 6 | THOSE OF you who remember Sly & Robbie 's so-called golden period , when students would approach reggae DJs and ask for ‘ something by Sly & Robbie ’ when the DJ had already been playing records driven by them all night , had better get used to some changes . |
| 7 | The findings pointed to a lack of training for social services staff and suggested senior SSD managers had not been providing workers or users with information about the changes . |
| 8 | And then … as if people had not been hearing things since Noah hit his thumb with a hammer , SOUND arrived . |
| 9 | They had not been given details of the legislation and so were unable to counter opposition scaremongering . |
| 10 | She knew Penny had not been raiding apples , but she had n't convinced Farmer Bolsover of it . |
| 11 | She had not been allowed visits from her family , who lived in the United States , for over two years . |
| 12 | There was a movement within the Trees , the sudden shifting of green and gold and russet , so that Floy knew the dusk had not been playing tricks after all . |
| 13 | If Ruby Dobby had not been offended matters might have turned out differently . |
| 14 | The headmistress and the governors of the school named were justly irate , for , they stated with concerted vehemence , no child had witnessed the recovery of the body of a murder victim from the canal : those children who had not been making stegosauruses out of old egg boxes had been learning an Ashanti war dance , and not one had been in the playground , which was the only vantage point from which body recovery would be observable . |
| 15 | Nigel 's usual way of putting women off had always been to cancel dates with ineffectual excuses . |
| 16 | He had had his own darkroom , and had always been taking pictures . |
| 17 | Makeshift barriers closed off corridors , marking out the territory of rival gangs , while elsewhere emergency doors had been removed and new corridors created through what had once been living quarters . |
| 18 | And Leo had also been taking steps to revivify the influence of religion at other levels . |
| 19 | He said he had also been offered interviews with ministers in the South African government , so that he could form a balanced judgement , but had declined . |
| 20 | I had also been having problems with my gut . |
| 21 | Quite unwittingly you played right into my hands that night , Aurora — I knew you had n't been taking drugs , but it gave me the perfect excuse for sticking around . |
| 22 | Frying-pan in hand , she is saying she has nothing for us , she had n't been expecting customers ; at this time of year there are visitors only at weekends . |
| 23 | She knew with total certainty that her imagination had n't been playing tricks , and that it was the second time in only a few minutes that she 'd heard those precise words . |
| 24 | Until then , they had simply been called Nazareans . |
| 25 | In the 1950s , attention was directed to the fact that manual workers had increasingly been earning wages directly comparable to those of white-collar and supervisory staff . |
| 26 | The local Phalangist headquarters were deserted but a Syrian officer , who had earlier been distributing leaflets describing the Syrian army as ‘ an envoy of brotherly love and peace ’ , brusquely jumped down from his tank and uprooted a Phalangist sign designating Kahhale a military zone . |
| 27 | Mrs Young said she had previously been handed notes by deaf people in the shop . |
| 28 | I had recently been representing consumers on the National Consumer Council , as well as chairing the National Gas Consumers ' Council . |
| 29 | Constance had never been given flowers before and she beamed with pleasure . |