感心する · noun or participle which takes 'suru'
| Form | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Dictionary | 感心する | 感心しない |
| Polite | 感心します | 感心しません |
| Past polite | 感心しました | 感心しませんでした |
| Past | 感心した | 感心しなかった |
| Te-form | 感心して | 感心しないで |
| Desire | 感心したい | 感心したくない |
| Potential | 感心できる | 感心できない |
| Passive | 感心される | 感心されない |
| Causative | 感心させる | 感心させない |
| Causative passive | 感心させられる | 感心させられない |
| Volitional | 感心しよう | |
| Polite volitional | 感心しましょう | |
| Imperative | 感心しろ | 感心するな |
| Conditional | 感心すれば | 感心しなければ |
| Tara conditional | 感心したら | 感心しなかったら |
noun, noun or participle which takes 'suru', intransitive verb
admiration; being impressed
Usually used as 感心する or 感心している, with に marking what impresses the speaker: skill, effort, attitude, insight, and so on.
I was impressed by her courage.
先生は彼の観察力に感心していた。
The teacher admired his powers of observation.
Na-adjective use, often in approving phrases such as 感心な心がけ, praising someone's attitude or conduct.
困っている人を助けるとは、感心な心がけだ。
It is admirable of you to try to help people in need.
noun, noun or participle which takes 'suru', intransitive verb
astonishment; being appalled
Negative or ironic use: the speaker is struck by something shameless, excessive, or unacceptable. It can sound like reluctant or sarcastic admiration rather than genuine praise.
彼の無責任さには、悪い意味で感心した。
I was appalled, in a bad way, by his irresponsibility.
ここまで堂々と嘘をつけるとは、ある意味感心する。
I am almost amazed that he can lie so brazenly.
I was impressed by his effort.
He's an admirable kid who often helps out at home.
I can't say I'm too impressed with that approach.
I couldn't help but be impressed by his composure.
感心 is a everyday word for being impressed by someone's skill or behavior, while 感嘆 is more literary and stresses awe or wonder.
感心する simply means to be impressed, while 恐れ入る in this sense adds a nuance of being humbled or overwhelmed by the other person's skill.
感心 means to be impressed or admire something, while 熱心 means to be enthusiastic or eager about it; learners often mix up the two 心-words.
感心 (also read かんしん) means being impressed or full of admiration, which is easily confused with 関心事 despite sharing the kanji 心 and sound かんしん.
関心 (interest/concern) and 感心 (admiration, being impressed) are pronounced identically but written with different kanji and mean very different things.
感心 (かんしん, 'admiration') is easily confused with 肝心 (かんじん, 'essential') due to their near-identical pronunciation despite unrelated meanings.