괜찮은 척하는 것도 이젠 지쳐

The line, explained

This is the bridge where the singer stops holding it together. 괜찮은 척하는 것도 이젠 지쳐, 'I'm tired of pretending I'm okay'. The brave face has been on for the whole song, and now it slips. The pattern at the centre is -(으)ㄴ/는 척하다, 'to pretend', which takes a describing word and turns it into an act. Once you learn it, you will start noticing how much pretending there is in K-pop lyrics.

괜찮은 comes from 괜찮다, to be okay, a word you may know from 괜찮아. Here it has the ending -은, which makes it describe something: 'okay-ish', 'the okay kind'. The ㅎ in 괜찮다 goes silent before a vowel, so it sounds like gwaen-cha-neun. Then comes 척, a noun meaning 'pretence' or 'show', followed by 하다, to do. Together, 괜찮은 척하다 is 'to put on a show of being okay'.

The form before 척 depends on the word. Adjectives take -(으)ㄴ: 괜찮은 척, 행복한 척, 강한 척. Verbs take -는 for something happening now, like 모르는 척 (pretending not to know) or 자는 척 (pretending to sleep), and -(으)ㄴ for something already done, like 본 척 (pretending to have seen). In speech, 척하는 sounds like cheo-ka-neun, because the ㄱ and ㅎ blend into a single K sound.

척하는 것도 adds two small pieces. -는 것 turns the whole phrase into a noun, 'pretending', and 도 means 'also' or 'even'. So the singer is saying that even the pretending, on top of everything else, is too much now. 이젠 is 이제 (now) plus 는, and in sentences like this it means 'by now' or 'anymore'. 지쳐 is from 지치다, to be worn out, the kind of tired that is emotional as much as physical.

Sing it with the crack in your voice: gwaen-cha-neun cheo-ka-neun geot-do, then i-jen ji-chyeo, almost a whisper. Swap the act: 강한 척하는 것도, pretending to be strong; 행복한 척하는 것도, pretending to be happy; 모르는 척하는 것도, pretending not to know. And if a friend ever sings this line to you, the right answer is waiting: 괜찮은 척 안 해도 돼, you don't have to pretend.