oh my god

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.

It is used widely across both the English-speaking word and across all walks of life.

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.

Oh Tuhan- in Indonesia

#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.

The high school kids I teach in Japan say it sometimes.

The "Oh ... my ... God!" with Pinteresque pauses is used by expat teenagers in Hong Kong and probably by very few over the age of 21.

I think it was made famous by the character (Janice?) in Friends who was at one time Chandler Bing's boyfriend and who kept turning up in his life like a bad penny.

does overusing it make you sound dumb?

Oh yes. It most certainly does.

From the ever-reliable Wikipedia:

Janice Litman Goralnik (née Hosenstein) is Chandler's ex-girlfriend, who appears in every season of the show's run. Disliked by all of the friends, she is portrayed as extremely annoying, with an extravagant fashion sense, a loud, nasal exaggerated New-York accent, and a loud annoying laugh. Her trademark expression is "OH. MY. GOD!"

Agree that it's closer to 'bon Dieu' than 'mon Dieu' in French simply because it's still considered blasphemous by quite a lot of people, in Australia at least. I haven't heard anybody use it spontaneously for a while.

I like it. Out of 13 posts, 3 of them mention Janice.

Exclamation or Expletive, OMG Is Omnipresent

My impression is that 'my God' is very widely used across all generations in the UK, but 'oh my God' is used far more by younger people than older people (don't ask me for specific ages).

From nutrax's link:

In 1804, one writer observed that "by gosh" is the "most elegant and classical oath imaginable."

It's not clear whether the writer of the article understood that the 1804 writer was being ironic. He was, trust me.

Also from that link: The principal, Sister Kathy Avery, recently read to students a list of words that are unacceptable on the school's playground.

I'll bet you anything that my father's sizzling string of cuss words would have dazzled those kids even more than the good Sister's. And likely in her case, as when Mark Twain observed when his wife stared him down and repeated his blue string word for word, Well, you got the words right, but you ain't got the music. Or something to that effect.

But what I really had wanted to say is that in Morocco recently, I heard a nine year old say Oh...my...god!--which was then repeated by his seven year old sister, both giggling. Since they don't speak English, and would not likely be watching English language television, my assumption is that they picked it up in the street. Omnipresent.

What's interesting to me is that they understood quite perfectly the social "weight" of the expression. It was "wow!" but with a tinge of something a little more daring. Something their Mom, who has a hair-trigger hand, wouldn't slap for, but still in the territory of pushing the boundary of the well-known but forbidden.

"Allah" gets thrown around in every other sentence, by the way.

My normal utterances are: "Jesus" or "Jesus Christ"

My bible thumping Christian friends are always aghast when I say it so if I remember I'll say "Oh Shit!" instead.

Good one, SojoMojo! :-)

My own experiences with teens and young people over the past couple of decades have exposed me to the many ways "oh my god" can be used in a conversation. There's the emphatic form Razzak cites, there's the quick quip, "ohmygod," meaning something like "what now?" or "not now!" or "are you serious?" "In this sense, "ohmygod" can be used equally well in response to "that guy you like is on the phone," or "that guy you can't stand is on the phone." There's the down emphasis at the end meaning something like, "I can't BELIEVE how frustrating that person/this situation is," then the up emphasis and I'm not sure what that means because I tune out when I hear upspeak. "Oh my God" has become as ubiquitous as "yes," "no," "please," in the sense that it would be possible to stage an entire conversation using only that phrase between two people, using just enunciation and emphasis to convey the nuances of meaning.

On a student exchange trip to Britain I chaperoned in 1996, one girl's reaction to everything was "oh my GOD!" From the way they drive on the left to seeing a Jaguar on the motorway to the places we stayed, it became the tagline for the entire trip. You can hear it on the videos. I knew it was common in my circles, but I hadn't realized until I read this thread how common it's become worldwide. Interesting.

I say "oh my God" even though I know it's blasphemous. Going for a euphemism doesn't change what you're actually saying, so I figure I might as well say what I mean and not sugar it up with "oh my gosh." But I don't use most Anglo-Saxon epithets.