I have been working.

[siruss]

Situation:
Mary has studied for 2 hours and then she is relaxing watching TV.
Then, her mother returns from work and shouts in an angry voice:
"What are you doing now? Have you done your homework?"

In this situation, is it ok when Mary says in a miffed voice , " I have been working on my homework."

How about " I was working on my homework."?

Thank you in advace.

[Ouisch]

If Mary's answer is "I have been working on my homework," then Mary's mom's question would have been: "What have you been doing since you got home?" or "What have you been doing all afternoon?"

If Mary's mom asked "What are you doing now? Have you done your homework?" then "I was working on my homework" would be an appropriate response.

[siruss]

Thank you so much!!!
It helped a lot.

[carol_0222]

Hello!

I feel that this situation could (should?) be handled this way:

The mother's questions were: What are you doing now? (Mary is watching TV) Have you done your homework? (She studied for 2 hours, before watching TV)

So Mary's answer should be either: "I've already done my homework [and now I am relaxing in front of the TV]" or "I've studied for 2 hours and I've finished my homework [and now I relaxing in front of the TV]". The portion in bracket not required since the mother can see what Mary is doing.

Indeed, "I have been working on my homework" would imply that she hadn't completed the task. As for "I was working on my homework" would be incorrect since the question was "What are you doing now?

Furthermore, I believe that "one does one's homework", not "works on one's homework".

I hope this helps as well,
Carol