Hello,
I'm curious about the expression "oh my god". Is it especially american or is it equally used in all english speaking country? does it belong to a particular social category (e.g. teenagers, bimbos)? does overusing it make you sound dumb?
Thanks for any insight,
P.
And it's used frequently in other languages.....it is common to hear "dios mio" in Mexico, "meu deus" in Brazil, etc.
"mon Dieu" in French too, n'est-ce pas? Never thought of it as particularly American - certainly used in Australia.
#3 "Mon Dieu" is a bit old-fashioned. I don't hear it much. Younger people tend to swear instead. And here in southwest France, locals often say "boudiou", which comes from "bon Dieu".
Thanks for your answers.
The reason I'm asking this is that I just watched some american reality show (survivor...), and it struck me to hear this expression so often. It occured to me that women use it much more than men. Besides, I remember that during my first trip in the US, I met two brits that were pretty amused by hearing "oh... my... god" at every corner.
When learning a foreign language, it can be difficult to know if some expressions are associated to a given social group. I was wondering if it could be the case here.
#4, how often did you hera Indonesians saying that?
OP, I thought the Americans say 'Oh my Gawd'....;)
OP, although very universal (and thought by many my age—old—to be somewhat antiquated), "oh my god" is on a comeback in the U.S., particularly among the preteen set and the teen- post teen- bimbo set. It has become nearly as ubiquitous and repulsive (to my ears) as the "you know" of years gone by. My Mexican pre-teen kids who see a fair amount of sub-titled, English language stuff on TV or in the movies, have even started using it, which makes me want to scream.
very common here in NZ. 2 main ways it is used would be the dizzy slightly dopey hair flicking NZ equivalent of a valley girl. Somewhere in that sentence would be the word 'like' as well. "Like omigod he was sooooo hot in that movie"
Or, one of absolute shock and exclamation. "Oh...my...god". An extreme example of this would be any friends episode with the character of "Janice" waving her hands in front of her yelling it out (it was an ongoing gag with that character). By shock, I don't mean shock from something terrible happening but rather shock from something slightly ridiculous - like I dunno, a 50% off sale at a shoe store.
In addition to the above two I would say it's used in emails and texts a lot. OMG - omigosh or omigod being the common abbreviation.
While I would say that the first two uses tend to be primarily female, I am not sure the usage of 'OMG' necessarily is.
That's my purely anecdotal view of it anyway.