H-Weakening (ㅎ 탈락)

ㅎ is the most slippery consonant in Korean. As an initial consonant it sounds like English 'h', but as a 받침 (final consonant) it weakens or disappears entirely in most environments. When followed by a vowel-initial syllable, it drops out — 좋아요 (good) is pronounced 'jo-a-yo', not 'jot-a-yo'. When followed by a plain consonant, it aspirates that consonant instead of being pronounced itself.

Example: 좋다 (to be good) is pronounced 'jo-ta' because the final ㅎ of 좋 combines with the ㄷ of 다 to produce ㅌ (aspirated t). 어떻게 (how) follows the same pattern. The general principle: ㅎ rarely survives as itself when it meets another consonant — it either disappears or gets absorbed into the next consonant as aspiration. Learners who try to pronounce every ㅎ explicitly end up sounding stilted; trust the rules and let ㅎ vanish.