Tonight’s song is a question, and an accusation. A woman can see from the evidence that a man hasn’t been honest, and she isn’t having it.
Learn from Songs · Unit 6: The perfect aspect · B1
Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?
A funny, sharp country song built on a present perfect continuous question: the present perfect continuous for evidence (Someone’s been eating my figs! You’ve been running), Where have you been? What have you been doing?, and present perfect simple or continuous, with Marcos, detective of the Library kitchen.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
Like a detective!
SOPHIA
Like a detective. Or like the three bears: who’s been sitting in my chair? Who’s been eating my porridge?
DEMETRIA
It’s the same grammar?
Before you listen: the song
Nashville and Quebec, 1994–1995
This was the first single from Shania Twain’s second album, The Woman in Me (1995). She wrote it with Robert John “Mutt” Lange, the producer she later married. It was her first real hit, and she still sings it at almost every concert.
It’s a humorous country song. In it, a woman tells a man who has been dishonest with many women that he can cross her name off his list. She knows what he has been doing, from the evidence, and she is not going to be the next.
In the video, Shania walks around a country diner, but none of the men can see her, even when she eats their breakfast.
The evidence never lies.
Listen: the accusation
PHILO
Listen once. Who is she talking to? What does she know about him? What is her answer?
SOPHIA
Then listen to the question in the title: have been. Answer Section A.
🔎 Listen to the song: “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” (Shania Twain and Robert John “Mutt” Lange, 1995).Find the official video on YouTube →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?”, Shania Twain.Read the lyrics →
Present perfect continuous: evidence
DEMETRIA
Someone’s been eating my figs! You’ve been running: you’re out of breath!
SOPHIA
have / has been + -ing when we see the evidence now of an activity that was happening recently: Your eyes are red. Have you been crying? It’s been raining: the streets are wet.
Where have you been? What have you been doing?
MARCOS
Where have you been? What have you been doing? Your hands are sticky!
SOPHIA
Typical questions for someone who has just arrived, or who looks suspicious! Answers: I’ve been working. I’ve been at the market.
Simple or continuous?
PHILO
Someone has eaten all the honey (the jar is empty). Someone has been eating the honey (there’s some left, and sticky fingers).
SOPHIA
Present perfect simple = the result, the action is complete (I’ve written three letters). Continuous = the activity itself, maybe unfinished (I’ve been writing letters all morning).
Sophia’s comparison: Penelope’s test
SOPHIA
When Odysseus came home after twenty years, Penelope didn’t trust him at once. She tested him: she asked the servant to move their bed. He was furious: that bed was built around a living olive tree, and could not be moved. Only he could know that.
PHILO
Evidence, not words.
DEMETRIA
Penelope would have liked this song.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| have / has been + -ing | evidence of a recent activity | Someone’s been eating my figs! |
| Where have you been? | asking about recent whereabouts | Where have you been all morning? |
| What have you been doing? | asking about recent activity | What have you been doing? You’re covered in mud! |
| present perfect simple | completed result | Someone has eaten all the honey. |
| How long has… been + -ing? | duration | How long has this been happening? |
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 song is it?
2. What does the woman know about the man?
3. What is her answer to him?
4. What is strange in the video?
5. Which album was it from?
6. Which fairy tale uses the same grammar?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. Someone’s been my figs! (eat)
8. Where have you all morning?
9. What have you been ? (do)
10. You’re out of breath. Have you been ? (run)
11. Someone has all the honey. The jar is empty. (eat, result)
12. It’s been : the streets are wet. (rain)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “Your eyes are red. Have you cried?”
14. “I’ve been working all morning.”
15. “Who has been eat my porridge?”
16. “I’ve written three emails today.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Detectives. Your partner mimes a situation (out of breath, sticky hands, paint on their clothes). Guess: You’ve been running! You’ve been eating honey!
Discuss. 1. Why do you think this song is still popular at Shania Twain’s concerts? 2. Is it right to judge someone by the evidence? 3. Retell Goldilocks with the present perfect continuous.
Write (80–100 words). The mystery. You come home and something is wrong. Describe the evidence and ask questions: Someone has been…, Who has…, What have you been…?
Now play the gamebook: Marcos investigates the missing figs.Play the gamebook →