Example sentences of "but he [verb] be " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nobody was quite sure how many degrees he had started and not finished , not even Boris , but he had been at the place so long he could remember when they used to spell it Freshmen 's Fair . |
| 2 | Enoch had mellowed , but he had been terribly hurt at losing his seat in 1987 . |
| 3 | But he had been Bishop of Durham for less than three years , and was in a see which fitted his gifts perfectly . |
| 4 | But he had been working on that first novel for at least ten years , ever since I 've known him . |
| 5 | But he had been young and in good condition . |
| 6 | But he had been careful never to invite back to his rooms any of his rowdier friends , lest their susceptibilities were offended . |
| 7 | But he had been right . |
| 8 | He had hit Milward pretty hard , thought Henry , but he had been right to do so . |
| 9 | ‘ He had obtained little knowledge from books , but he had been an original observer , and had reflected much on all he had observed , and drew his own conclusions . |
| 10 | Item — On the night of March 18th , there was a fierce storm ; Alexander was not drunk but he had been drinking heavily . |
| 11 | He had looked older when she had seen him at St Petrock 's ; but he had been scowling then , and now he was looking quite friendly and interested — rather like James , who sat in front of them regarding them both with faithful brown eyes . |
| 12 | In sending his contribution to the fund for Benjamin Haydon , Sir Walter Scott apologized for its smallness , but he had been ‘ a little extravagant lately ’ . |
| 13 | But he had been woken half an hour earlier . |
| 14 | According to Mr Carson , the professor had taken his degree at Oxford , but he had been in America for several years now . |
| 15 | Not that he was now smitten with Moray 's sister in any serious fashion , he could assure himself ; but he had been much impressed by her at Doune that time , her looks , her manner and behaviour , her quiet competence — and probably the fact that the young Steward was so evidently captivated , something which might hold its own challenge . |
| 16 | But he had been easily outwitted in the tangled back streets of Paris . |
| 17 | His family background was humble but he had been brought up on the writings of Beatrice and Sidney Webb and the philosophies of George Bernard Shaw . |
| 18 | But he had been bitten by the newspaper bug , and various groups of disaffected newspaper people , including disgruntled employees and ex-employees of The Times and the Sunday Times , approached him with a number of implausible journalistic ventures . |
| 19 | Always he felt sick when he ate , but he had been taught and he had learned , and his eyes squinted shut and he swallowed . |
| 20 | Lewis began his Narnia stories for children in 1949 , but he had been publishing fiction for adults since Out of the Silent Planet ( 1938 ) , a mixture of space-fiction and theology that he was soon to extend into a trilogy , ending with That Hideous Strength ( 1945 ) . |
| 21 | He told the abbot of Fécamp that he had heard that there was a letter of Pope Eugenius ( obviously a corruption of Hyginus ) which had settled the question , but he had been unable to get any information about this alleged source . |
| 22 | His success with the coffee machine was acknowledged , grudged but acknowledged , but he had been made aware that there was an argument for calling in the professionals when it came to tampering with the thermostat on the air system . |
| 23 | This was Peter Lorre 's first film but he had been acting for ten years in a career which had begun with his running away from home at the age of 15 and which bore many similarities to the careers of other American and European actors who had arrived in Hollywood already . |
| 24 | Mr. Adey had intended to call on the directors to explain his ideas , but he had been ‘ confined by a complaint in his legs and was still obliged to be carried from his sofa to a carriage ’ . |
| 25 | Billy had certainly been making some enquiries but he had been misinformed , Danny thought . |
| 26 | Huxley had turned the tables admirably , according to Sir Joseph Hooker , but he had been unable to throw his voice over so large an assembly . |
| 27 | But he had been adamant : he was staying . |
| 28 | This pistol was so heavy that he could not , of course , stick it in his belt ; it was all he could do to lift it with both hands But he had been so enthusiastic about it that he had willingly gone through the laborious loading of its honeycomb of barrels , one after another , and now it was ready to wreak destruction . |
| 29 | Indeed , the slope was no more than gentle for some way back along the line by which they had come ; but he had been preoccupied with the idea of danger in the open and had not noticed the change . |
| 30 | Poor Anna had been very indiscreet , the fascisti were going to arrest her or put pressure on her to leave the country for good , but he had been assured that if the principessa were to live again with him quietly in Rome nobody would touch her . |