Example sentences of "had to be [v-ing] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | She had to be imagining the caressing note in his tone . |
| 2 | He had to be joking ! |
| 3 | He had to be joking ! |
| 4 | Someone , somewhere out there just had to be searching for her . |
| 5 | It was most odd the way this woman had immediately made her feel as though she had to be conciliating . |
| 6 | The tension of being in his company had to be getting to her . |
| 7 | Aye , I 'm glad you 're thinking along the lines cos I think Chris and Dave they did , but erm had to be persuading . |
| 8 | We knew that our first step had to be spending time learning how we could best help Vietnam 's children . |
| 9 | I had to be dreaming . |
| 10 | Even if he was still paying off a mortgage , he had to be making at least £2,500 a year out of us , not counting the fact that the property had quadrupled in value . |
| 11 | Of course there had to be detonations , and of course there had to be shooting practice , but Monday morning was hardly the appropriate time . |
| 12 | It seemed she could enjoy herself whatever she was doing , but she had to be doing something . |
| 13 | She had to be doing something , either work or study . |
| 14 | I did n't want the person standing up because then you were back to the body shape , so he had to be sitting down . |
| 15 | Her brain had to be playing tricks on her . |
| 16 | You see he was that always had to be showing off and . |
| 17 | As a servant , he had to be rushing around , and he was a bit Chaplinesque in what he did — everything was so neat and detailed . |
| 18 | He was going to say it … he had to be leading up to ‘ I love you ’ … and she felt she was clinging on by her fingernails to the last trace of hope , her hands clutching the door-jamb behind her to stop herself sliding down and begging him to say it . |
| 19 | Zen gulped down the rest of his coffee and announced that he had to be going . |
| 20 | ‘ I asked why you had to be going . ’ |
| 21 | He used to mother had to be going living with them . |
| 22 | Damned quiet in the dining room , he 'd thought , as he crossed the hall , and if Bea Smith was in a room and it was quiet then something pretty peculiar had to be happening . |
| 23 | Where socialist parties came to power — in France , Spain or , in coalition , in Italy — they quickly realised they had to be modernising parties ready to put market economics ahead of old ideology . |
| 24 | The intimacy of television meant that this strange animal that liked to subtitle itself ‘ intimate revue ’ had to be breathing its last . |
| 25 | She had to be giving something , he knew , if it was only a word . |
| 26 | I just knew this had to be coming . |
| 27 | In Britain there was a significant reduction in the number of employees eligible for employment protection , so that to be within the terms of the Employment Protection Act , they had to be working for two years instead of , as previously , six months . |