Example sentences of "could [not/n't] [verb] [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | When , however , in one district , private hospitals attempted to provide data they found that in most cases they could not identify patients ' districts of residence ( S Israel , personal communication ) . |
| 2 | The possibility of Japanese defence forces taking over after the peace treaty was opposed by MacArthur : it would be a violation of existing commitments , would be contrary to SCAP policies hitherto and in any event could not transform Japan into a significant military power . |
| 3 | Even then , though , firms would have to balance the advantages of a central location against those of decentralization : some clothing firms , for instance , could not leave London because of their need to be near the fashion market . |
| 4 | Holmes himself could not leave London until/since … |
| 5 | Those who could not leave work in time could catch the 19:46 and we would all travel back together . |
| 6 | After returning the painting to the icon shop , the dealer subsequently received two contradictory letters , the first stating that ‘ his ’ Wtewael had been placed on the national index of important works of art that could not leave Germany , and the follow-up , which noted that the Wtewael had been taken off the index , and that it could , therefore , be exported . |
| 7 | Joseph enjoyed being able to scold his wicked employer , with warnings from the Bible , and I could not leave Miss Catherine . |
| 8 | Once she was there it would require a tremendous effort of will to get her back to London — except that she could not leave Holly in charge for more than a day ; and except that she was avid for information about the murder inquiry ; and except that there were any number of good stories she wanted to pursue for the column and any amount of private gossip she wanted to hear . |
| 9 | On the other hand , the same music had to serve for six more stanzas — Pisano wrote fresh music for the short final one and therefore could not reflect details of the text . |
| 10 | Wolves huffed and puffed , but they could not blow Tracey 's house down again . |
| 11 | The family could not speak English and my schoolboy French was almost exhausted so I bade them good afternoon but managed to make them understand that I would have dinner with them one evening soon — ‘ An English dinner . ’ |
| 12 | But what of foreigners who could not speak English ? |
| 13 | He could not speak Masai so he always was accompanied by this man , a Nandi , who , I am afraid , does not speak Masai very good . ’ |
| 14 | One may be amused — though not very — that after living in Italy for forty-five years Max still could not speak Italian , but such insularity is not to be imitated . |
| 15 | Skip could not speak Russian and only a few crew members could speak limited English . |
| 16 | She could not speak French , she was quite weak and , worse still , she was a woman . |
| 17 | They could not go side by side . |
| 18 | The mass of politically independent States were economically dependent on the world economy , for parliaments could not tame capital : |
| 19 | He also could not visit Spain without recollecting that last romantic horizon , the Spanish Civil War . |
| 20 | For example , the doctor who used crutches said that he would find surgery difficult and could not visit patients at home because of access problems . |
| 21 | He was troubled , I could see , because , being unable to share these memories , he could not disentangle truth from fiction or creative embellishment from accurate detail . |
| 22 | Then I remembered someone who could : the person could not stand cash , but was maybe prepared to put something up of the value of £500 . |
| 23 | Ray 's unambiguous homosexuality could not satisfy Minton 's complex needs , but as a lodger , he proved to be easy and independent . |
| 24 | If the first phase aroused the resistance of linguists , the second phase , with its uncompromising insistence on linguistic equality , could not satisfy educationalists . |
| 25 | The Irish courts have held that a child which was born deformed in consequence of an injury to its mother , caused by the fault of a railway company on whose line she was travelling , could not recover damages ; but the decision turned on the view that the company , not having means of knowledge of its presence , owed no duty towards it . |
| 26 | In that respect the banks argued that Mr Crawley had no locus standi , and the judge agreed that a shareholder could not recover damages for any reduction in value of his shareholding . |
| 27 | But her annoyance over the pictures could not distract Catherine from her latest — and biggest — ambition . |
| 28 | But they could not distract Molby , who calmly tucked away his kick . |
| 29 | The relatively liberal de Graaff had been replaced as Governor-General by de Jonge , a hardliner ( it was he who pronounced that Dutch rule would continue for another 300 years ) , and the Colonial Minister was H. Colijn , whose notorious book , Colonial Problems of Today and Tomorrow ( 1928 ) , had declared that the Indonesians could not expect self-government ‘ in the humanly foreseeable future ’ : indeed , he dismissed the notion that there was any Indonesia : ‘ The islands … are a unity for the reason that they compose the Netherlands Indies and for that reason alone . ’ |
| 30 | After much uncertainty it became plain that the Russians could not expect Mr Aziz to return to Moscow until late on Thursday ; he was expected to go at once to see Mikhail Gorbachev . |