Tonight’s song describes a completely ordinary day. And it’s one of the saddest songs ABBA ever recorded.
Learn from Songs · Unit 8: Modals · B1–B2
The Day Before You Came
ABBA’s most mysterious song: must have, can’t have and might have for deductions about the past, especially from habits and routines (I must have left early, as usual), with the past simple and past perfect, and Demetria, who has lost her grandmother’s bracelet.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
Why is an ordinary day sad?
SOPHIA
Because it’s the last ordinary day before everything changed. And the singer can’t even remember it properly: she has to work it out.
MARCOS
ABBA! My aunt has all their records.
Before you listen: the song
Stockholm, 1982
ABBA were the Swedish pop group of Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid (Frida), one of the best-selling groups of all time. “The Day Before You Came” was one of the last songs they recorded together, in 1982, shortly before the group split up. Agnetha sings the lead vocal.
It was not a big hit at the time. Today, many critics consider it one of their finest songs. Björn said that if you read the words without the music, it’s just someone describing a normal day; but with the music, you feel that something important, perhaps something bad, has happened.
In the song, the singer tries to remember the day before she met someone. She can’t remember it clearly, so she works it out from her habits: she must have done this, she must have done that, because that was her routine. Only at the end do we understand how much that meeting changed her life.
The video was filmed in Stockholm, on a train. It shows Agnetha meeting a stranger.
An ordinary day, worked out from habits.
Listen: the routine
PHILO
Listen once. What kind of day is she describing? Is it exciting or ordinary? How does the music make you feel?
SOPHIA
Then listen for must have: how many times? Answer Section A.
💍 Listen to the song: “The Day Before You Came” (Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, ABBA, 1982).Watch the official video →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “The Day Before You Came”, ABBA.Read the lyrics →
Must have: deduction from habits
DEMETRIA
I must have left early, as usual. I must have gone to choir: it was Thursday.
SOPHIA
must have + past participle = I’m almost sure, because of evidence or because it’s my habit: I don’t remember, but I must have locked the door: I always do. It’s very natural when we reconstruct the past.
Can’t have, might have
MARCOS
I can’t have lost it at the baths: I didn’t go there. It might have fallen off in the market.
SOPHIA
can’t have = impossible. might / may / could have = possible. Remember: the opposite of must have is can’t have, never mustn’t have.
Habits: always, usually, as usual
PHILO
I always take the same road. I left early, as usual. I usually go to bed at ten.
SOPHIA
Adverbs of frequency (always, usually, often) go before the main verb. As usual = like on other days. Habits are the evidence for must have: I usually walk, so I must have walked.
Sophia’s comparison: the day before
SOPHIA
The Greeks loved the moment when an ordinary life is changed for ever: Oedipus was an ordinary king, until the day a messenger arrived.
PHILO
And Moses was just keeping his father-in-law’s sheep in the desert, an ordinary day like a thousand others, until he saw a bush that was burning and was not burnt.
DEMETRIA
So you never know which day is the day before.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| must have + past participle | almost sure about the past (evidence, habit) | I must have left early, as usual. |
| can’t have + past participle | sure it didn’t happen | I can’t have lost it there. |
| might / may / could have | possible | It might have fallen off. |
| always, usually, as usual | habits as evidence | I usually walk, so I must have walked. |
| past perfect | an earlier past action | I had taken it off to wash my hands. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. What kind of day does the singer describe?
2. Does she remember it clearly?
3. Why is the day important?
4. How does the music make it feel?
5. When was it recorded?
6. Where is the video set?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. I don’t remember, but I must locked the door. I always do.
8. It was Thursday, so I must have to choir. (go)
9. I didn’t go to the baths, so I have lost it there.
10. It might have off in the market. (fall)
11. I left early, as .
12. I remembered that I taken it off to wash my hands.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “I mustn’t have locked the door, because it was open.”
14. “She must have forgotten.”
15. “I must have leave at eight.”
16. “He might have missed the bus.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
An ordinary day. Think of a normal day last week that you don’t remember well. Reconstruct it with your partner: I must have got up at…, I must have…, I can’t have…
Discuss. 1. Why do you think the song is so sad? 2. Have you ever had a day that changed everything? 3. Why do we forget ordinary days?
Write (100–120 words). The day before. Write about the day before an important event in your life, using must have, might have, can’t have, and finish with what changed.
Now play the gamebook: Demetria and her grandmother’s bracelet.Play the gamebook →