Posted by Jonah Lopin on Sat, Jun 19, 2010 @ 10:40 AM
I just sneezed, which reminded me that I've been meaning to write this post for a while.
When someone sneezes, you can say 百岁, which sounds like bai3 sui4. The word 百 means "100", and 岁 means "years" or "years old". The phrase literally means "100 years old" but it sounds like "I hope you live until you are 100 years old."
So, if you are the type of person who feels the need to say "bless you" when someone sneezes, you can say "百岁".
But if you want to respond to a sneeze in truly authentic Chinese... just don't say anything. The typical Chinese response to a sneeze is to ignore it. American exchange students are usually the only ones who say 百岁.