The German language knows many complex tenses.
To build those, you often use the past participle of a verb.
So, please, pay close attention to this chapter!

The German past participle refers to the past tense.

To construct this form, just follow this simple rule:
Take the infinitive of a verb and put ge- at the beginning.
Then take away the ending -en – and add -t instead.

Take a look at these examples:
spielen (to play) → gespielt (played)
haben (to have) → gehabt (had)
sagen (to say) → gesagt (said)

Please note:
There are a bunch of exceptions to that rule of thumb – and you have to learn these participles by heart.
(But taking a look at the examples above, we guess that you already assumed that this is just like in English.)

If you like to see this verb form in action, visit the following chapters:

• Perfect tense
• Pluperfect