Example sentences of "had been [v-ing] [prep] [det] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | I am convinced that stuff had been accumulating for many years in this cellar and that Ernest Griffiths had no idea what was in there . |
| 2 | But however reasonable , nothing was as cheap as free accommodation , and she had been counting on these next six months to build up a bank balance . |
| 3 | The US and North Korean governments had been communicating for several years at a low level through the US embassy in Beijing . |
| 4 | Eventually an old gentleman who had been listening with much amusement to their discussion said that what mattered was not whether the earthworm has an immortal soul but whether it has a purpose . |
| 5 | I think he had been listening to some people in the dale who had missed out on the shoot and the money that went with it , and were critical , or pretended to be critical , of people who worked for Sir Emmanuel and the other toffs — maybe a bit left wing , although Stanley was n't a person who took any interest in politics . |
| 6 | But the Chancellor did show he had been listening to some of industry 's gripes . |
| 7 | A report to the meeting said services to the region had been deteriorating for several years , with fewer trains running at less flexible times . |
| 8 | A report to the meeting said services to the region had been deteriorating for several years , with fewer trains at less flexible times . |
| 9 | He had been speaking for some five minutes or more with force and conviction , carried away by the things which concerned him greatly . |
| 10 | Both countries had been speaking for some time of their desire to improve relations , without making much progress . |
| 11 | Film shown on Algerian television that same evening recorded that he had been speaking for some minutes . |
| 12 | The advice was given after Jo had been speaking to both children and their parents ( an audience that included 12 year old Romy Hutchins — a participant in the Challenge — and her father Paul , the former British Davis Cup captain and national team manager ) , in a unique question and answer session which preceded an on court clinic for the 20 or so participating juniors . |
| 13 | To judge by the clutter of bottles , glasses , and over-filled ashtrays , and the brooding , weary faces , they had been debating for many hours . |
| 14 | Many had been decomposing for several weeks . |
| 15 | It seemed incredible to Tug that only five minutes before he had been calling her Ma and they had been grinning at each other . |
| 16 | This was reportedly a concession which US oil companies had been seeking for some time . |
| 17 | The City and the Confederation of British Industry had been looking for some indication of earlier participation in the exchange rate mechanism of the EMS . |
| 18 | For the first time she recognized that secretly she had been looking for some way out for herself and Midnight . |
| 19 | It was me she had been looking at all that time , but secretively , like a girl . |
| 20 | The phone had been ringing for some time . |
| 21 | He had found the one he had been searching for all those years — the one wavering on the brink of eternal damnation . |
| 22 | The wood at the back of the painting was deeply scored with a dagger as if someone had been searching for some secret crevice or compartment . |
| 23 | By the time I was twelve years old I had been thinking for some time about getting a bird of my own . |
| 24 | In fact , he was so happy with the idea that had come to him from the writer , Peter Shaffer , he began the serious rethink of his career which friends like Lance Percival had been thinking for some time was overdue . |
| 25 | It had never occurred to her that Christopher had been thinking of these things too . |
| 26 | So it was obvious that my father had been thinking of this long before . |
| 27 | The conference of 1923 was the culmination of long planning on the part of Lord Darlington ; indeed , in retrospect , one can see clearly how his lordship had been moving towards this point from some three years or so before . |
| 28 | Ian Clark and Nicholas Wheeler demonstrate the degree to which British thinking had been moving in this direction since 1943 . |
| 29 | There they brought the coracle ashore lightly , and drew in , with reluctance and the reverence of finality , what they had been hunting with such assiduity , and so persistently hoped they would not find . |
| 30 | And in the 1930s he had been unforgiving towards these friends of his youth . |