French Grammar: Past Tense

To form the simple past tense, I gave/I have given, I finished/I have finished, combine the present tense of the verb avoir - to have with the past participle of the verb
(donné, fini, répondu),

Not all verbs take avoir (j'ai..., il a...) as their auxiliary verb; some verbs take être (je suis..., il est...). These are intransitive verbs (which have no object),

When the auxiliary verb être is used, the past participle (allé, né, etc.) becomes adjectival and agrees with the subject of the verb,