How do you conjugate the third person singular of the verb BLESS?
Why do people say GOD BLESS and never GOD BLESSES? Is there any explanation about this? For me I think the correct writing is God blesses. Some teacher has told me that the right answer is God blesses and some say is od bless. What is your answer?
I thank you very much.
Joel Guilherme Velten

Question

Answer

'God Bless You' is in the subjunctive, not the indicative. Look at it as 'may god bless you' or 'let god bless you'. It's not about what god is doing at the moment but what he 'should' do, or what you wish/want him to do. Just like, for example, 'God Forbid!' (may god forbid it). It would be wrong to say 'God Forbids' because the meaning changes completely. Same with 'God help you' and similar expressions.

Answer

I bless, you bless... he blesses, she blesses, it blesses. That's the conjugation.

However, "God bless (you)" is subjunctive, so the verb does not conjugate.

If we say "God blesses you", we mean that it's something that God typically does. This sounds a little odd in a regular conversation.

We use "God bless" to mean "(May) God bless (you)."