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Example sentences for "had been"

  • I had been used to chromos for years, and I saw now that without my suspecting it a passion for art had got worked into the fabric of my being, and was become a part of me.

  • Everybody discussed me; and did it as unconcernedly as if I had been a cabbage.

  • As the soldiers assisted me across the court the stillness was so profound that if I had been blindfold I should have supposed I was in a solitude instead of walled in by four thousand people.

  • From a distance, unseen by me, he had been a witness of his friend's death and of my escape.

  • He had been engaged to Miss Edith Woodley, of Carstairs, but the engagement had been broken off by mutual consent some months before, and there was no sign that it had left any very profound feeling behind it.

  • Therefore, it had been put on during the night.

  • This morning Thea saw to her delight that the two oleander trees, one white and one red, had been brought up from their winter quarters in the cellar.

  • While Ray was smoking his cigar, he and Johnny fell to talking about the great fortunes that had been made in the Southwest, and about fellows they knew who had "struck it rich.

  • He had been to see a sick woman down in the depot settlement, and he was walking because his ponies had been out for a hard drive that morning.

  • Thea was never tired of examining this work, of hearing how long it had taken Fritz to make it, how much it had been admired, and what narrow escapes it had had from moths and fire.

  • SV1AB: "I had been in regular contact with ZS6LN on ten metres long before Costas SV1DH appeared on the scene.

  • The four volt heater drew one amp and I had been trying to get it going with a small torch battery.

  • When I approached my knee to the metal leg of the work-bench I would lose the station I had been listening to.

  • How could a young lad like him know there had been a fire on a ship which was not even in sight of the shore?

  • This was to prevent the public from learning how ludicrous had been the accusations, and how completely unjustified the arrests had been.

  • Knightmare," a high-school age hacker from Arizona, was a close friend and disciple of Atlanta LoD, but he had been nabbed by the formidable Arizona Organized Crime and Racketeering Unit.

  • Several LoD hangers-on had been arrested, but nothing had happened to the Phrack crew, the premiere gossips of the underground.

  • Killer" had been shipped to the Customer Technology Center in the Dallas Infomart, essentially a high-technology mall, and there it sat, a demonstration model.

  • By January 1990, it had been available in Phrack for almost a year.

  • In my own country I had been accustomed to command.

  • Come," he said, and we followed him through the hatchway which had been opened by one of the seamen.

  • Thuvia lost no time in leading us toward the corridor which winds back and forth up through the cliffs toward the surface thousands of feet above the level on which we had been.

  • The girl had not once spoken since we had been brought to the deck.

  • His powerful tail was raised high to one side, and as he passed close above them he brought it down in one terrific sweep that crushed a green warrior's skull as though it had been an eggshell.

  • He had been his father's favourite, and it had occasioned some unfavourable comment when he had been created a duke, with a title derived from no less a city than the capital itself.

  • It had been a fortress in old days, and the ancient keep was still in good preservation and very imposing.

  • I had been to a German school and a German university, and spoke German as readily and perfectly as English; I was thoroughly at home in French; I had a smattering of Italian and enough Spanish to swear by.

  • If I had been killed in open day in the streets of Strelsau, Sapt's position would have been a difficult one.

  • I felt as foolish as if I had been caught in some mean act by a responsible being, and reproved for it.

  • The student by whose courtesy we had been enabled to visit the dueling-place, wore the white cap--Prussian Corps.

  • At the time I am writing of, I had been reading so much of this literature that sometimes I was not sure but I was beginning to believe in the gnomes and fairies as realities.

  • That face which fifteen days sooner, or fifteen days later, had been, or would be, splendidly illuminated by the solar rays, was then being lost in utter darkness.

  • Just when the deep-toned clock in the great hall struck eight, Barbicane, as if he had been set in motion by a spring, raised himself up.

  • From the moment of leaving the earth, their own weight, that of the projectile, and the objects it enclosed, had been subject to an increasing diminution.

  • He might have married well a hundred times over, if he had been willing to settle in life.

  • All the time he had been in a state of ill-concealed irritation at the noise of the vivisected puma.

  • And even as I lay there I saw, with no more interest than if it had been a picture, a sail come up towards me over the sky-line.

  • I flung aside a crib of Horace I had been reading, and began to clench my fists, to bite my lips, and to pace the room.

  • I heard the puma growling through the wall, and one of the dogs yelped as though it had been struck.

  • Although lately he had been so prominent a figure in fashionable English society, he had spent most of his early life abroad.

  • Bibot, during the day, had been on duty on the Place.

  • She tottered almost as if she would fall, and Sir Andrew, quickly recovering himself, and crumpling in his hand the tiny note he had been reading, was only apparently, just in time to support her.

  • He had been a poor man, master only of a Bay craft.

  • I would then make the letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask him to beat that.

  • Mr. and Mrs. Auld were both at home, and met me at the door with their little son Thomas, to take care of whom I had been given.

  • I had been at my new home but one week before Mr. Covey gave me a very severe whipping, cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as large as my little finger.

  • So Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been.

  • He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.

  • While she was looking at the place where it had been, it suddenly appeared again.

  • He had been at the pains of consulting Mr. Perry, the apothecary, on the subject.

  • I should be mortified indeed if I did not believe I had been of some use; but it is not every body who will bestow praise where they may.

  • It was no one's affair how lonely the previous day had been, or how the endless hours of the present would drag.

  • I honestly could see that I would have looked just as well as the rest of them if I had been dressed as they were.

  • He had been so busy framing diplomatic speeches to make to Mrs. Comstock that sleep had little chance with him.

  • The damp earth before the case had been trodden by large, roughly shod feet.

  • No one said a word, for Elnora's question, the reply, and her answer, had been repeated.

  • And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

  • God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!

  • Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty.


  • The above list will hopefully provide you with a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "had been" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this group of words.


    Some common collocations, pairs and triplets of words:
    anthracite coal; had all; had also; had brought from the; had done; had ever; had forgotten; had formerly; had gone; had learnt; had left; had lived; had managed; had never seen before; had not; had often; had only; had previously; had recourse; had risen from the; had set; had she; had spoken; had the; had told; smooth face