Sentence examples for had been French from inspiring English sources

"If he had been French, it would have been easier for him".

Among the soldiers who carried out the killing were 14 Alsatians who had been French citizens until the war.

The name for the coastal area, before it was changed to French Territory of the Afars and Issas, had been French Somaliland.

The Defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, admitted there had been French casualties, other than a helicopter pilot killed on the first day.

A significant number of those from what had been French North Africa went to France, but the majority of the refugees went to Israel; they and their descendants today make up approximately half of Israeli Jewry.

According to the foreword to her memoirs, a Frenchman once wrote: "If Beryl Burton had been French, Joan of Arc would have to take second place".

This was part of a diplomatic experiment, charged - unofficially - with selling British influence in a relationship with Africa that had been French-dominated.

It treated the atrocity as a microcosm of capitalist war and class aggression.When 21 of the perpetrators finally went on trial in 1953, it turned out that 14 of them had been French-speaking conscripts from Alsace.

All the teacher had was French horns in the closet, so that's what I learned".

Jacques Delors, architect of the euro and the most dynamic president the European Commission has ever had, is French too.

Really, he should have been French.