Is ‘God bless you’ an abbreviation of : ‘Let God bless you’?
Because the first expression is not fully gramatically correct for me, but I know it from hearsay.
Thank You
It’s the subjunctive being used to express a desire or wish that something should happen or someone should do something. Similar usages are “Long live the king!” and “Someone help me!” If you want an expanded form, “May God bless you” is possibly better (this expression is in use too). However, I do not particularly perceive “God bless you” to be an abbreviated form; it feels like a set expression in its own right.
But can we also say, without the subjunctive form: God blesses you/ God is blessing you?
Hi Saneta,
The purpose of the subjunctive is to describe something that is not real but imagined or hoped for. Your two sentences:
are examples of the indicative mood (form), which states how things occur in reality and are not to do with imagination or wishing.
Alan