Example sentences of "could [not/n't] [vb infin] [adv] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | By now Modigliani could not transform overnight into a conventional husband , and Jeanne accepted him with his failings . |
| 2 | On the other hand , if ‘ the nation ’ — any nation — were not so vulnerable , its professional defenders could not skim off so much of its wealth as protection money . |
| 3 | Yet half the names could not leave even if they wanted to : they are locked into the 58 ( out of a total of 401 ) Lloyd 's syndicates that have been unable to close one or more of their past annual accounts , so unquantifiable are the liabilities stacking up against them . |
| 4 | He was not a tall man and was soon almost dwarfed by his five lively , wryly humorous sons , who avoided him as far as possible and could not leave home soon enough . |
| 5 | This was directly aimed at the ‘ surplus countries ’ , especially Japan and Germany , and was an attempt to bind them into a system where they could not pile up persistent surpluses . |
| 6 | The easterners could not complain too bitterly while their exports to Western Europe were growing by double-digit amounts . |
| 7 | Perhaps I am so preconditioned by tables that I could not reflect quickly enough that there are other ways of getting the answer . |
| 8 | She grinned : all the shit in the world could not blow away the simple wonder of this pastoral scene . |
| 9 | Gale force winds could not blow away the players ' enthusiasm but they did make it very hard work . |
| 10 | Yanto could not recollect ever having seen him out of a boiler suit . |
| 11 | He could not move , and he thought he probably could not speak either . |
| 12 | She , in whom a natural clear spring of charm flowed vigorously , who expostulated , articulated and knew her own mind with commanding grace — in private , not in public of course ( before others who were not family , such confidence in a girl would seem an outrage ) — could not speak up now and tell Rosa what she felt . |
| 13 | Three who were hospitalised could not speak intelligibly , had a fixed stare , and were constantly drooling . |
| 14 | I try therefore to think only of life and youth — I could not speak lightly of death as do you , my lord . ’ |
| 15 | Bull O'Malley could not speak further ; he could feel his throat constricting . |
| 16 | She could not go up , only down . |
| 17 | Ministers once again ducked the question of recognising Macedonia , even though Lord Carrington is believed to have said there was no practical reason why it could not go ahead . |
| 18 | On 28 June the Bank decided that the restructuring could not go ahead and that BCCI would have to be shut down . |
| 19 | Mr Connelly , of Chantry Green , Ipswich , was told the operation could not go ahead because the five intensive care beds were already full . |
| 20 | As a consequence the original idea of installing an additional floor in the building could not go ahead at present . |
| 21 | Despite some progress in the negotiations on deploying UN troops , including Croatia 's acceptance of their being stationed in areas of current conflict in the republic , Vance reported to the UN that deployment could not go ahead until a ceasefire was observed . |
| 22 | But , where the clause did not contain that useful provision , an awkward party ran no risk in simply refusing to appoint a valuer , with the result that the reference could not go ahead and there was no way of obtaining a valuation . |
| 23 | She had advised that the case could not go ahead , and Mr McTear went to bed , said Mr Fyfe . |
| 24 | ‘ The pencil could not go fast enough over the paper , so quickly changed the scenes . ’ |
| 25 | He could not go fast enough now to satisfy him . |
| 26 | He simply could not go around labelling people , and moving them about as if they were chess pieces , just to suit his own ends . |
| 27 | I could not go beyond . |
| 28 | And it has to be said , he wrote , that its opposite , a feeling of elation , equally physical , equally extra-physical , has also been a constant feature of my life , manifesting itself regularly though impossible to predict , a reeling in the chest this time , the chest and perhaps the throat , a feeling of the heart leaping and the blood pumping , it came when I first took up a brush and made a mark on paper , it came when I picked up the first readymade and felt it transformed by that very action , it came when Madge rang to say she could not go on , when Annie wrote to say she was not coming back , when the idea of the glass first popped into my head . |
| 29 | But a few minutes after he was launched into the speech he came to a dead stop , stared strangely at the gallery in silence , and could not go on . |
| 30 | He neither went towards her nor withdrew and she saw it could not go on like that . |