Alternatives to Bless You / Gesundheit

[Cashewnut]

OK, so I was watching "Skins" on E4 the other evening, when a young lady who is the object of one of the main male character's desires has an adorable sneezing fit of four cute, spluttery sneezes, to which he remarks to his mate: "She even makes mucus look sexy!". (Sorry, no links since the programme is about a group of youths in the Upper Sixth Form of their local college, and are therefore borderline 18). This got me thinking about some of the amusing things we say, instead of blessing people... Here are some of my faves:

"Bloody Hell! I'm surprised he's got any nose left to sneeze off after that outburst!"

(At work, when morale is low) "There's nothing wrong with you, you're not going home!"

"Really, if you must sneeze over the keyboard, could you please do it over the boss's? They're more deserving of your germs than I!"

(For cute girly sneezes:) "What on Earth was that? Was that supposed to be a sneeze?"

"You're sneezing, Girly!"

I think that it would be useful to have a pool of comments available, for those members who are uncomfortable with blessing people, or as alternative catalysts to a sneezy conversation. Over to you guys & gals - what have you used or heard?

[Nicole]

Great topic!

I'm not lying about this...and I still don't understand it...but I had a professor that, when anyone sneezed, would say, "May all your children look like you."

It always irritated me, probably because I figure if you're going to take the time to say anything, it should be "bless you"!

[billy]

Umm...my teacher always said, "don't hurt yourself."

I sometimes say "Cheers" on accident and then correct myself, but I don't know why. I think in Bulgaria they say cheers when someone sneezes (though in Bulgarian, which I know nothing about!).

My friend always says "someone's talking about you." which is following the Korean tradition that if you sneeze, two people are talking about you. Wonder if that's true. If so, what if you almost sneeze, but then it dies at the last second. What? Did someone ALMOST talk about you, or maybe they just thought of you.

BTW, nice topic starter, Cashewnut

And Nicole, I have no idea what that means, but its interesting!

[cheech]

My teacher always used to say "Good Catch!" after someone sneezed into their hands. I always kinda enjoyed it.

I kinda always liked "God bless you."

[tFM!]

I don't bless anyone, because...I'm too scared to But I have friend who sneezes a lot, and feels that when people say 'bless you', that they're "wasting seconds of their life saying 'bless you!' to me, and it makes me feel guilty for wasting their time!" She prefers that if people are going to say anything, that they say "Nice recovery!" (because of the 'your heart stops when you sneeze' myth). It's pretty cute, actually.

[Cashewnut]

My teacher always used to say "Good Catch!" after someone sneezed into their hands. I always kinda enjoyed it.

I like this one! I might use it myself in the near future, if you don't mind!

[cheech]

My teacher always used to say "Good Catch!" after someone sneezed into their hands. I always kinda enjoyed it.

I like this one! I might use it myself in the near future, if you don't mind!

Dont mind at all,

[Just Older]

If I'm with my kids at school, I have to say Bless You. That's what they know and expect.

When it's my boyfriend (who knows) or my friends (none of them know), I ask if they're finished yet. Especially if it's more than one.

Other people, I ignore and say nothing at all.

[Anya]

My husband says "Labriut" (health/bless you in hebrew) which gets some weird looks when he says it to someone who doesen't speak the language.

[a red nine]

When I was in Spanish class, my teachers always said "Salud" if you sneezed once, but then they also had this other phrase for if you sneeze three times that meant "Good health, prosperity, and luck" or something along those lines. I was trying to find it on Google but couldn't. I just remember she used to say that.

[Chanel_no5]

What's wrong with a simple "Thank you", to show the sneezer that you appreciated it?

[Just Older]

What's wrong with a simple "Thank you", to show the sneezer that you appreciated it?

Because it's kinda weird? Well, mostly, anyways.

[a red nine]

What's wrong with a simple "Thank you", to show the sneezer that you appreciated it?

Probably the closest we could get to a giveaway while still seeming innocent.

But it's still a little suspicious.

[Sneesee]

I think my favorite would be the classic line from Seinfeld, "You're so good looking." If that isn't the exact wordage, I'm sorry but I am too lazy to look it up at the moment. I would love to say that to someone, but have never had the guts to do it.

I don't think I've ever said anything out of the ordinary, or heard anything out of the ordinary when it comes to blessings. I like it when someone blesses someone else enthusiastically. I also like hearing it in a different language, such as "Salud," and "A tes souhaits." (Hope I spelled both of those correctly)

[VoOs]

I also like hearing it in a different language, such as "Salud," and "A tes souhaits."

Me too. I hate the way we say "bless you" in Swedish, so any blessing that isn't in my native tongue is a good blessing.

I've actually said "Thank you" to a sneezer a couple of times. If it's a friend sneezing, I'll probably just click my tongue in an "aww"-sort of way, or maybe chuckle a little.

My grandmother usually says "Tjosan!" when somebody sneezes, which would translate into something like "Whoospy daisy", I guess.

[Wishing]

I think my favorite would be the classic line from Seinfeld, "You're so good looking." If that isn't the exact wordage, I'm sorry but I am too lazy to look it up at the moment. I would love to say that to someone, but have never had the guts to do it.

Yes, that is the exact wordage, and I love that one too....would never dare say it to anyone though!

A couple more I can think of (for differing situatations) would be....

'Does that feel better?' (especially when it's obvious that the person really needed to get the sneeze out).

'Need a tissue?' (if someone is particularly snotty or sniffly afterwards)

'All done now?' (after multiple sneezes...have heard my partner say this to his son before).

And if you're brave enough....'That was a good one!' (if you particularly enjoyed it!)

[Sneesee]

This afternoon at work I heard an interesting one. One guy sneezed twice, and this other guys said, "There went two brain cells." The best part was when the sneezer said, "Well I kill a lot more than that because I sneeze all the time."

[aquadyne14]

someone i knew a long time ago used to say "nice facial orgasm!" so sometimes i'll use that if the person that's sneezing is a close friend

[Guy]

Some stupid kids at my school say "God blesses your soul!"

[Klingon]

I might use that brain cells one in the future if I ever remember it. however I usually say "there goes the neighborhood it will be a silent (insert season here)", buch deish (pronounced berk dAshe) or I say "oy baka Aho nokku sore ofu!... "doka ikeh" :note (pronounced ah-hO) (pronounced sOh-rAy) (pronounced off-U) (pronounced dOh-kuh) (pronunced E-keh)

[vatergrrl]

One of my coworkers always says, "Good health!" in this big, booming voice he has. I think I would probably want to crawl under my desk if he ever turned it on me.

[zneeze]

One time my friend sneezed twice, and someone near us blessed him both times and then said, "If you sneeze again I'll hit you." Just in a joking manner, of course

[stevie_sloth]

Whenever my partner's sneezes, I either say "bless you", or "nose girl!" lol

[Raining Strawberry]

Oooo, interesting topic, and I'm loving the responses so far. Me personally, I never bless people... knowing me, I'd probably start stammering and would turn bright red. Somehow I find "bless you" to be a tongue twister.

Although on a couple of occasions in my life, I've had a good friend sneeze, and stare at me expectantly, and one even said, "uh, 'bless you?'" So both times I managed to mumble it. One friend laughed at my awkwardness.

Overall I think I do like the sound of "bless you", despite its archaic religious context, as well as variants in other languages that mean "good health", such as "gesundheit" and "salud". And though I rarely hear these in real life, I looove in stories if someone says to someone else, "you okay?" or "how're you feeling?"

Some stupid kids at my school say "God blesses your soul!"

Oh yes. I heard this one a lot in middle school and high school, and you know it was always the popular kids, mostly for show. But what I always wondered about was why, when someone sneezed in class, ten people would bless them? It got to the point where teachers were highly annoyed and gave lectures about saying "bless you" only once.

I had a professor that, when anyone sneezed, would say, "May all your children look like you."

It's strange, but I think I like it. Jeez, now I'm going to have to keep an ear open for that phrase to figure out where on earth it could possibly have come from!

[stevie_sloth]

I once said "You ok!?" to my partner after she sneezed REALLY violently one time. lol It didn't feel odd or awkward either, cause I was genuinely shocked and sort of amused. We were both laughing.