Example sentences of "could [adv] [be] sure [conj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Even afterwards he could only be sure if he asked her , and she would think that odd . |
| 2 | Firstly , he could not be sure whether other surviving members of the killer pack might arrive at any moment to join the attack on him . |
| 3 | In the morning , Gabriel could not be sure whether she had been there or not . |
| 4 | It is true that , without a test , a country like Iraq could not be sure that its bomb would go off . |
| 5 | But knowledge of the English burnings was widespread , and Scottish Protestants could not be sure that something similar might not now happen to them . |
| 6 | Without a test , a renegade bomb-builder could not be sure that his bomb would go off . |
| 7 | The husbandman 's argument appears to have been this : he could easily determine by the above methods whether the seed-bed was ready for the corn and whether the soil was of the right tilth : but be could not be sure that the soil was warm enough to allow the seed to germinate . |
| 8 | For a moment he thought that a sprinkling of light fell wherever Fael-Inis walked , but as it touched the floor it vanished , and he could not be sure that he had seen it at all . |
| 9 | Corbett had been alone with her for five minutes when she died , but Mr Justice McKinnon told the jury ’ You simply could not be sure that in the short time Danielle was under his control he caused her death . |
| 10 | Lord Taylor , the Lord Chief Justice , sitting with Mr Justice Judge and Mr Justice Hidden , said they could not be sure that the original trial jury would have reached the same verdict if it had heard evidence which had since come to light . |
| 11 | They found female orgasms unpredictable and could not be sure when , or sometimes why , they happened . |
| 12 | The problem was that I could not be sure if this was your true feeling for me , or just your terror of Mathilde 's ghosts making you cling to me in that delightful and extremely inflammatory fashion . |
| 13 | Then all at once , so subtly that I could hardly be sure when I first saw it , I realised that the sky was full of movement , small shadowy shapes skimming low over the ground , silently , as if bats or night-time swallows were criss-crossing my line of vision , swarming between the broch and the sea . |
| 14 | For years those of us who have played a cat and mouse game with cagey manager Billy Bingham over team selections could always be sure that Donaghy 's name would be the first one down on the sheet . |
| 15 | Although I did what I could to try to conceive a girl , I could n't be sure that I had . |
| 16 | She was afraid then , rather as a skier might feel when he looks down the steep whiteness of a dangerous slope , or a high diver who seems far above the water , but the sensation was so unusual to her that she could n't be sure that it was entirely unpleasant still strongly mixed , as it was , with curiosity . |
| 17 | While grudgingly accepting Mr Rosen 's line that there were some good teachers who did teach properly , he was quick to counter with the challenge that ‘ we could n't be sure that it was happening elsewhere ’ . |
| 18 | There had n't been a show , I had no contractions and I could n't be sure that my waters had broken . ’ |
| 19 | Could n't be sure that if he walked back in now she would n't still feel that leap of the heart , that curl of excitement . |
| 20 | When he woke he gazed up at Dot almost as though he knew her , yet she could n't be sure if he really saw her , for his eyes had a distant faraway look like a sailor in the Navy staring across the Pacific seas . |
| 21 | The detector was recording neutrons all right , but they could n't be sure if there were neutrons coming from the cell over and above those coming from natural sources , such as cosmic rays and general radioactive ‘ dirt ’ around the lab . |
| 22 | thought bream to be the culprits , but could n't be sure because so far I had not seen any prime out in the swim to indicate they were , in fact , present there . |
| 23 | He laughed with other actors , was outrageous in restaurants , shouting orders to waiters who could never be sure if he was being serious or playing another part . |
| 24 | These were moved frequently so that terrorists could never be sure where the next checkpoint would be . |