In conversation, Germans talk about the past mostly in the Perfekt: a form of haben in second place, and the past participle at the very end — the same bracket you know from modal verbs.

• Ich habe am Samstag Fußball gespielt. — I played football on Saturday.
• Was hast du gestern gemacht? — What did you do yesterday?

It looks like English I have played, but it also does the job of the English simple past: Gestern habe ich Pizza gekauft is Yesterday I bought pizza — not I have bought.

Pronoun	haben
ich	habe
du	hast
er / sie / es	hat
wir	haben
ihr	habt
sie / Sie	haben