How does one form the present perfect in German?
I am really confused, do I have the right idea?:

Step one: Place "haben (always haben, nothing else)" as a helping verb (this gets conjugated like usual)
Step two: Move the main verb to the end of the sentence(and conjugate it).
Step three: place "ge" in front of the verb.

For example:

Ich habe das gesehe. (this for some reason feels so weird, and almost incorrect, because I usually put the verb back in the infinitive with modals haha [modals and kicking the verb to the end is the only time I know so far you do such a thing with a verb])

Please correct me if I am wrong, I am super unsure.

Question

How does one form the present perfect in German?
I am really confused, do I have the right idea?:

Step one:  Place "haben (always haben, nothing else)" as a helping verb (this gets conjugated like usual)
Step two:  Move the main verb to the end of the sentence(and conjugate it).
Step three: place "ge" in front of the verb.

For example:

Ich habe das gesehe.  (this for some reason feels so weird, and almost incorrect, because I usually put the verb back in the infinitive with modals haha [modals and kicking the verb to the end is the only time I know so far you do such a thing with a verb])

Please correct me if I am wrong, I am super unsure.

Answer

Right idea, but some details are off.

Step one: There are also verbs that use "sein" as the modal verb, though "haben" is more common.

Step two: The remaining part of the verb isn't conjugated, and ...

Step three: ... it's not just "ge" + verb either. For regular verbs it's "ge" + verb stem + "(e)t" (e.g. ich habe gekauft, gelebt, gewartet), but there are additional rules for verbs with prefixes and of course irregular verbs. "I have seen" (that's an irregular one in English too, it's not "seed" after all) is "ich habe gesehen".

http://mein-deutschbuch.de/perfekt.html
http://deutsch.info/de/grammar/perfekt
http://www.deutschegrammatik20.de/verbformen/die-konjugation-perfekt/

Answer

Hi Zachary, 
Perfect in German consists of Hilfsverb (haben / sein) conjugated according to the subject + Partizip Perfekt  (not conjugated) at the end of the sentence. 
Hast du den Film gesehen? - Ja, ich habe den Film gesehen.
Hast du den Satz verstanden? - Nein, den habe ich nicht verstanden.
Trinkst du Tee? Ich habe schon Tee getrunken.
Gestern bin ich ins Kino gegangen. Dort habe ich meine Freunde getroffen. Wir haben einen guten Film gesehen.

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