Compound past tense

The compound past tense, sometimes called the conversational past, is used to refer to unconnected events, and is the most common past tense form in conversational German. It is formed with a helping verb (haben or sein) and the past participle of the main verb.

Ich habe ihn nicht gesehen.
Wir sind nach Berlin gefahren.
Haben Sie das Buch gekauft?
Das Wetter ist warm geworden.

I haven't seen him.
We travelled to Berlin.
Did you buy the book?
The weather has become warm.

Notice from the translations that this tense can correspond either to the simple or the compound past in English.