"Les enfants ont mangé et maintenant la nappe est sale."

Translation: The children have eaten, and now the tablecloth is dirty.

[PatrickMar738533]

Wouldn't "ont mangé?" be better translated to "ate?" "Have eaten" seems to be a different tense.

[Nathan173901]

Depending on the context, the French tense passé composé translates either as past simple or present perfect. Here we can see an apparent result of their action, hence the present perfect.

[Vic3141]

I wish i had been taught grammar terms in the fifties and sixties. Although, I've really only needed them on Duolingo.

[SuhailBanister]

Il faut aussi vérifier en dessous de la table ! ;-)

[roger868968]

People round here (Yorkshire) often say the "cloth", not necessarily the "tablecloth"

[rafal-elbing]

Why, on many occasions, les (somethings) is translated to just (somethings) without "the", and here it is required?

[Padi_Evans]

Because looking at the context of this sentence, you can figure out that the speaker isn't talking about general children. But they're talking about a particular group of children who ate and made a particular tablecloth dirty.

When it's a general implication, like "Les enfants aiment jouer", you'll know it is translated into English as "Children like to play."

[DrMHaywood]

For UK anglophones 'nappe'may be too similar to 'nappy' (US 'diaper') which could result in a spontaneous mistranslation of this sentence...

[AdelaDvila]

This is WRONG. Why can't it be "children ATE" instead of "children have eaten"?

[PatrickMar738533]

You don't have to yell