Basic greetings: Greeting your neighbor

🇯🇵 By itself, [おはよう] is casual and fine with neighbors you already know a bit. With someone older or when you want to sound more polite, [おはようございます。] is safer.

💬 [ございます] is what makes [おはようございます。] more polite than plain [おはよう]. You'll also see it in set phrases like [ありがとうございます。].

🇯🇵 This is a standard polite morning greeting and works well with neighbors. It's more natural than asking [お元気ですか。] every morning, which can sound a bit textbook-like in Japanese.

🇯🇵 Adding [さん] after a neighbor's name is the normal polite choice. Using someone's bare name can sound too direct unless you're close.

💬 [ですね] softens a statement and invites agreement, like saying 'isn't it?' or 'right?'. You can attach it to lots of comments: [暑いですね。] 'Hot, isn't it?'.

🇯🇵 Talking about the weather is a very natural small-talk opener with neighbors in Japan. It often feels more natural than jumping straight into personal questions.

💬 In replies like this, [そう] often means 'that's so' rather than 'so' in the English sense of 'therefore'. You'll hear the same pattern in [そうです。] and [そうでしたか。].