# Alternative to "Bless You" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 27, 2002, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319 "2002-03-27T03:52:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NightRabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@NightRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightRabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/21 "2002-03-27T17:59:28Z")
I’m not religious, and I have friends who aren’t religious. I usually say “bless you” when people sneeze, just to be polite. However, one of my friends sneezed once and, after my “bless you,” commented, “I don’t like that. It smacks of religious overtones.” “Go to hell!” I replied, smiling. From now on I tell my athiest friends to “go to hell” after they sneeze. It’s quite entertaining. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/22 "2002-03-27T19:41:10Z")
My wife says **Gesundheit**. I usually say “Bless you”, or sometimes (as we said in Spanish class) “Salud!” (Health) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/23 "2002-03-27T19:48:45Z")
A friend of mine says (among friends… usually), “Satan welcomes you!” 😃 I say “Gesundheit”, myself. I thought it was more common in American communities with a lot of German immigrants, like where I grew up; is that the perception of other posters or is it a fairly widely known word? ---
**Author:** ![Yondan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/278dde/32.png) [@Yondan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yondan)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/24 "2002-03-27T20:37:41Z")
I knew this girl in college, we were in a history class together, who had a funny ritual about sneezing. She would sneeze twice, sort of half stifling it, and then say this certain phrase. It was especially entertaining in the middle of the final exam… ::Total silence:: “Knee! Knee!..Bless me!” ::Total silence:: ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/25 "2002-03-27T22:00:44Z")
I always enjoy just looking at them in amazement and exclaiming “Get the f\*ck out of here!” like they’d just said something bizarre. It’s pretty good for impregnating a pause. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/26 "2002-03-27T22:31:39Z")
It’s common in France to just ignore sneezing but one sometimes hears “À vos souhaits!” (ah VOW s(ou)way). [The familiar (i.e., non formal) equivalents is “À tes souhaits!” (ah TAY s(ou)way)] A former French teacher claims the proper response to this (i.e., by the sneezer) is “À vos amours!” (ah VOW saMOOR) [“À tes amours!” (ah TAY saMOOR)] “À vos/tes souhaits”: To your wishes “À vos/tes amours”: To your loves ---
**Author:** ![Magickly\_Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magickly\_Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magickly_Delicious)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/27 "2002-03-27T23:13:22Z")
[Beavis] Heh, heh, heh. He _sneezed_. Yeah. Heheheheheh. Cool. [/Beavis] ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/28 "2002-03-27T23:14:26Z")
“Good One!” 😃 _-me_ ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/29 "2002-03-28T00:27:41Z")
I say, “Whoa!”, and back away. ---
**Author:** ![Methos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Methos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Methos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/30 "2002-03-28T03:51:35Z")
heheehhe…thanks for the entertaining answers guys. I don’t know if I found one that i would use, but def. entertainign 😃 Cheers ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/31 "2002-03-28T06:42:04Z")
Well, I usually say “Salud,” which as mentioned before, is Spanish for “Health”. I think the Italian is pretty similar. If you feel stupid with a foreign word, you could just try saying someting like “Good Health!” but then, I’d feel pretty stupid saying _that_, so I guess it’s really whatever you’re comfortable with. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/32 "2002-03-28T09:27:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mishell \* > \*\*I usually say, “hail sneezer!” \*\* LOL I love that one! When people sneeze around me I normally don’t say anything. Just like I don’t say anything when they fart, cough, hicup, burp or any of the other crazy stuff the body does. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2002, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319/33 "2002-03-28T15:45:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DeniseV \* > \*\*A friend of mine says (among friends… usually), “Satan welcomes you!” 😃 > > I say “Gesundheit”, myself. I thought it was more common in American communities with a lot of German immigrants, like where I grew up; is that the perception of other posters or is it a fairly widely known word? \*\* I though “gesundheit” was pretty much well-engrained in the American lexicon. I can’t think of one person who’d be perplexed by the word. I swear the word was used in Saturday-morning cartoons and the like. 'Course when I was growing up, I heard it pronounced more like “gazootight” rather then “geh-zoond-height.” **Skerri** - why would your friend get angry using the German now-pretty-much-English “Gesundheit”? Too Teutocentric? The words “bless you” really don’t confer on me the religious connotations. For me the phrase has passed into idiom, and have as much religious significance as “good luck” or “well done!” Webster’s unabridged 2nd entry for this word is “to make happy, blithsome or joyous; …” And that’s the context in which I think of this word. Of course, YMMV [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-to-bless-you/100319.md?page=1)