People of various religious faiths have an issue with others using "God" casually. It's not really a problem if you use it, you won't start fights over it. But some people can be offended if you use it too much. You can use any of these; "Oh boy" "Oh gosh" "Oh my goodness" "Oh my" "Oh heck!" * "Not again!" "Bl**dy Hell!" * "Struth!" "Oh my giddy aunt!" "Crikey!" (Like Steve Irwin) "Aw man" *With these ones, some people will think you're swearing, others will think you're censoring yourself from using crude language. Probably be careful about using them near children because parents will become annoyed at you

Whatever= Anything is okay. (polite). Also people gave lots of good variations for "Oh, my God!" already, but understand that the time to use it or any of the variations, is when you are super (really/very) surprised or even shocked.

I tend to use "oh my gosh" or "oh dear", but there are as many ways to express surprise as there are people! If someone scares me and I want to express negative surprise, I often say "sheesh, you scared me!" It depends on the people you are talking to. There is a chance that if the person is religious, they will be offended by "oh my god", mostly because it feels insincere. If I am expressing sympathy towards another person, I say "Aw, man, that's awful," but only in very informal situations. I hope that helps! ^_^ Emily

Try using Oh my goodness instead.

You can you the phrase whenever you are shocked or surprised by something .