Elle a mangé tout le gâteau ! means:

Question

In the test, I got the following question

"Elle a mangé tout le gâteau !" means:

- She is eating all the cake!

- She ate all the cake!

- She is going to eat all the cake!

- She has eaten all the cake!

- She had eaten eat all the cake!

Could you please explain why we you believe 'she has eaten all the cake' is correct but not 'she had eaten all the cake'? How would we say she had eaten all the cake in French and why is this not passé composé?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Roshni,
"She has eaten all the cake"  --> Elle a mangé tout le gâteau. (Passé composé)
"She had eaten all the cake"  --> Elle avait mangé tout le gâteau. (Plus-que-parfait)
The answer is that the two conjugations convey a different time frame situation as the English versions show.
Hope this helps
Bonne continuation
Jim