Example sentences of "he [modal v] be [v-ing] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | It 's hard to imagine anybody writing more artificially , but I hope you feel , as I do , there can hardly be a piece of poetry in which the distress of the poet and the feeling that he may be wasting his time comes through in a more anguished fashion . |
| 2 | ‘ My dear , do be quiet — he may be listening now ! ’ |
| 3 | Why do n't England give him another chance he may be getting old , but oh boy , he can still play . |
| 4 | And he may be marching into a trap with a right hand that needed surgery on it three fights ago to enable him to continue in boxing . |
| 5 | But do n't forget he may be thinking of messing around with you . ’ |
| 6 | But if his practical measures are anything to go by , he may be thinking of the Libyan nation , for he discourages international marriage not only with English or American persons , but with Algerians , Egyptians and Palestinians . |
| 7 | I imagine he may be thinking of keeping on the mill as a holiday home and feels it 's time to acknowledge that he does have neighbours . |
| 8 | In fact , even without knowing it , he may be looking to her as a vehicle by which he might rediscover his lost self , which did n't have the chance to blossom earlier . |
| 9 | Or he may be looking for a particular foodplant , or flower for nectar , searching for a special smell or a particular electromagnetic emission . |
| 10 | The teacher supplying the push may be helping to launch the career of a future gold medallist ; but equally he may be setting a youth off down a path to nowhere . |
| 11 | It is possible that when Gandhi speaks of Religion , what he may be referring to is not an ‘ essence ’ or a ‘ primordial element ’ or a transcendental unity' , but the faith of men which expresses itself in a variety of different forms . |
| 12 | When Bishop Asser says that Alfred severely chastised those who disobeyed his orders , he may be referring to action of a similar sort . |
| 13 | Now , this contribution is not direct , it 's indirect in the sense that males , a male for example who is provisioning a wife who is pregnant is not directly invent investing in the offspring clearly you ca n't do that she has to do that , cos the offspring 's inside her body , but indirectly he may be feeding his wife , protecting her and providing for her in , in a way that is absolutely critical to her reproductive success too . |
| 14 | Some he may be hearing in future include : Thy food is such as has been breathed on by infected lungs , ( Pericles ) — useful for insulting prison cooks . |
| 15 | He may be wearing psychedelic Bermudas , a toning but different psychedelic silk T-shirt , a straw panama , severely fashionable horn-rims , and unusually busy sneakers . |
| 16 | Well could I I mean this is of course one of the criticisms that one had to bear about Mrs. Thatcher about erm they say he 's not his own man , that to me indicates that he may be taking advice . |
| 17 | Further to compound my mystification , he does not seem to realise that according to Christian dogma , God is not only loving but also just and that He may be calling Christians to a future life which is not necessarily ‘ better ’ than the present . |
| 18 | The full length mirror can be a great help by enabling the child to look at things he is wearing which he may be trying to describe . |
| 19 | The other meaning uses plastered in the type of structure which we have introduced in the present section ; notice that it allows addition of to be ( and that it is parallel in its overall structure to ( 42 ) where there is a non-finite clause complete with subject , verb and object ) : ( 41 ) Clara wants the façade to be plastered ( 42 ) she wants the builders to plaster the façade Let us also take note of a subtle and rather interesting ambiguity , found in : ( 43 ) Oliver imagined her red-haired This may mean that Oliver is allowing himself to speculate on the effect of , let us say , adding a wig to a blonde lady of his acquaintance ( and this may therefore be called the " cosmetic " version ) ; or he may be trying to build a mental picture of someone he has never met ( the " unacquainted " version ) , in which case imagined could be replaced by supposed with very little alteration in the meaning of the whole . |
| 20 | He may be sitting in a hospital bed somewhere in Italy at this very moment , wondering who he is and why he knows all these long words like hermeneutics . ’ |
| 21 | He may be approaching 37 , but durable England tighthead prop Jeff Probyn has no plans to give way to ‘ the fresh-faced kids ’ just yet . |
| 22 | Instead you list some possible rewards he may be gaining from the phone calls : |
| 23 | Parallel importing : where articles have been put into circulation by or with the consent of the right owner , he can not use his rights to prevent the subsequent import into another EC country even though he may be selling those articles to himself in that other country . |
| 24 | He may be judging whether or not it 's worth returning to it . ’ |
| 25 | The user probably has limited expertise and he may be working under various stress conditions . |
| 26 | Mr Smith may be very depressed or he may be having a nap . |
| 27 | No alarm as yet ; it 's quite possible that he 's gone for one of his walks or he may be shopping or just visiting someone , but I 'm concerned . ’ |
| 28 | Or he may be planning to sell , in which case he can risk a dinner party without being trapped into intimacy . |
| 29 | When Gandalf says to Frodo of his wound on Weathertop , ‘ your heart was not touched , and only your shoulder was pierced ; and that was because you resisted to the last ’ , he may be making a moral statement ( Frodo was rewarded ) or a practical one ( he dodged , called out , struck back , put off the Ringwraith 's aim ) . |
| 30 | If talking things over inevitably leads to a row , then you 're to blame too , even though he may be driving you to over-react . |