The one thing the two words have in common is their function; which is, they act as auxiliary verbs. Otherwise also known as helping verbs, auxiliary verbs add functionality to main verbs.

To form the perfect tense you need a subject, an auxiliary verb and a past participle. Perfect tense with 'être' in French The perfect tense is used to say what you did or have done in the past.

When you look up a verb in the dictionary what you find is the verb in the infinitive form. In English it’s two words - ‘to swim’ - but in German it’s just the one schwimmen. In German ...