The verbs, être and avoir are used to form the French past tense, which can be translated into either of these English forms I played, he has played, we did play Depending on which verb it is a different form is used e.g. For aller (to go), être (to be)will be used; je suis allé (I went, I have gone, I did go), but for regarder (to look) avoir (to have) will be used; J'ai regardé ( I looked, I have looked, I did look). The present tense of avoir or être is taken and followed by the past participle. This is formed by removing the infinitive ending and adding the corresponding ending shown below.

Here are some irregular past participles

Below is a list of all the verbs that use être

When using être in the past tense, the past participle must agree in number and gender with the subject.