너 요즘 얼굴이 좀 안 좋던데

The line, explained

Sometimes the kindest way to ask if someone is all right is not to ask at all. Korean has an ending that makes this easy: -던데. It reports something you noticed and then leaves the sentence open, like a door left ajar. The other person can walk through and talk, or not. Today's line comes from a healing drama, where an old friend has noticed something is wrong and chooses the softest possible way to say so.

너 is casual 'you', with the topic marker dropped as it so often is in speech. 요즘 means 'these days, lately', covering the recent past up to now. 얼굴이 is 얼굴, 'face', with the subject marker 이, and the ㄹ links over so it sounds eol-gu-ri. In Korean, 얼굴이 좋다 and 얼굴이 안 좋다 are standard ways to say someone looks well or looks unwell; the face stands in for the whole person's condition.

좀 means 'a bit, kind of', softening the remark so it does not sound like criticism. 안 좋던데 is 안, 'not', plus 좋다, 'to be good', with -던데 attached to the stem 좋-. The ㅎ and ㄷ merge into a ㅌ sound, so you hear jo-teon-de. -던데 has two parts. -더- marks something the speaker personally witnessed in the past, and -ㄴ데 is the familiar 'and so, but' ending that sets up background for what comes next.

Put those together and -던데 means 'I saw that…, and so…'. The 'so' is left unsaid. Here it might be 'so what's going on?', 'so are you okay?', or 'so maybe rest a little'. That is the difference from -더라, which you may know: 좀 안 좋더라 simply reports, 'you looked unwell'. 좀 안 좋던데 reports and leans toward the listener, waiting. Because -더- marks observation, you cannot use it for your own deliberate actions.

Swap the observation and the tone changes: 너 요즘 얼굴이 좋아 보이던데 (you've been looking good lately), 많이 피곤해 보이던데 (you've looked really tired), 밝아졌던데 (you've brightened up). With a rising intonation it becomes a gentle tease: 걔 너 좋아하는 것 같던데? (seemed to me like they like you?). In everyday life it is perfect for recommendations: 그 영화 재밌던데, 'that film was good, I saw it', and the listener knows exactly what you mean.