From Middle High German gaffen (“to gape; to stare”), from Old High German *gaffōn, from Proto-Germanic *gapōną (“to gaze, observe”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁y- (“to gape, be wide open”);[1] influenced by and partly merged with Middle High German kaffen, a variant of kapfen (“to look, look surprised, gawk, wonder”), from Old High German kapfēn (“to look, stare, gawk, gape”), from Proto-West Germanic *kapēn. Doublet of jappen (which is from Low German), and cognate with Dutch gapen, English gape.
gaffen (weak, third-person singular present gafft, past tense gaffte, past participle gegafft, auxiliary haben)
| infinitive | gaffen | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present participle | gaffend | ||||
| past participle | gegafft | ||||
| auxiliary | haben | ||||
| indicative | subjunctive | ||||
| singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| present | ich gaffe | wir gaffen | i | ich gaffe | wir gaffen |
| du gaffst | ihr gafft | du gaffest | ihr gaffet | ||
| er gafft | sie gaffen | er gaffe | sie gaffen | ||
| preterite | ich gaffte | wir gafften | ii | ich gaffte1 | wir gafften1 |
| du gafftest | ihr gafftet | du gafftest1 | ihr gafftet1 | ||
| er gaffte | sie gafften | er gaffte1 | sie gafften1 | ||
| imperative | gaff (du) gaffe (du) |
gafft (ihr) | |||
1Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.