The ㅎ-irregular class is small, closed, and enormously high-frequency: it delivers 그래요 ("that's right / me too"), 어때요? ("how is it?"), 그런 ("that kind of"), and every basic color adjective. It also does something no other class does — it not only deletes the stem-final ㅎ but reshapes the following vowel into ㅐ. This page lays the whole class out as one table, then draws the boundary that saves you the most trouble: the class is for adjectives, and even among adjectives there is one famous exception (좋다) that behaves regularly.
The two things a ㅎ-irregular does
A ㅎ-irregular adjective is only ever "irregular" in two environments; everywhere else it is ordinary.
- Before an 아/어 ending (polite -아/어요, past -았/었-): the ㅎ drops and the leftover fuses with the ending into ㅐ. 그렇다 → 그래요. The output is ㅐ regardless of the stem vowel — 그렇 has ㅓ, yet the result is 그래, not the ×그러 you might expect.
- Before an 으 ending (attributive -(으)ㄴ, conditional -(으)면, causal -(으)니까): the ㅎ drops and the buffer 으 disappears too. So the attributive is plain -ㄴ (그런), never ×-은 (그렇은).
The single systematic wrinkle: ㅑ-stems fuse to ㅒ instead. Among these common colors, only 하얗다 "white" has a ㅑ in its stem (하얗 = ha-yah), so it alone breaks the pattern — 하얗다 → 하얘요, 하얀. Every other color word here fuses to plain ㅐ (노랗다 → 노래요, not ×노얘요). That one 얘 is the lone deviation from "always ㅐ."
The full table
Columns give the two irregular outputs — the -아/어요 form (→ 애/얘) and the -(으)ㄴ modifier (→ ㄴ) — plus the causal -(으)니까 to show the 으-drop a second time.
| Dictionary | Meaning | -아/어요 (→ 애/얘) | -(으)ㄴ modifier (→ ㄴ) | -(으)니까 (으 gone) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 그렇다 | be so / like that | 그래요 geuraeyo | 그런 geureon | 그러니까 geureonikka |
| 이렇다 | be like this | 이래요 iraeyo | 이런 ireon | 이러니까 ireonikka |
| 저렇다 | be like that (yonder) | 저래요 jeoraeyo | 저런 jeoreon | 저러니까 jeoreonikka |
| 어떻다 | be how / what-like | 어때요 eottaeyo | 어떤 eotteon | 어떠니까 eotteonikka |
| 빨갛다 | be red | 빨개요 ppalgaeyo | 빨간 ppalgan | 빨가니까 ppalganikka |
| 파랗다 | be blue | 파래요 paraeyo | 파란 paran | 파라니까 paranikka |
| 노랗다 | be yellow | 노래요 noraeyo | 노란 noran | 노라니까 noranikka |
| 까맣다 | be black | 까매요 kkamaeyo | 까만 kkaman | 까마니까 kkamanikka |
| 하얗다 | be white | 하얘요 hayaeyo | 하얀 hayan | 하야니까 hayanikka |
아, 그래요? 저는 전혀 몰랐어요.
a, geuraeyo? jeoneun jeonhyeo mollasseoyo
Oh, really? I had absolutely no idea. (그렇다 → 그래요)
요즘 몸 상태가 좀 어때요?
yojeum mom sangtaega jom eottaeyo
How's your health been lately? (어떻다 → 어때요)
저는 그런 스타일은 별로 안 좋아해요.
jeoneun geureon seutaireun byeollo an joahaeyo
I don't really like that kind of style. (그렇다 → 그런, 으 gone)
얼굴이 왜 이렇게 빨개요?
eolguri wae ireoke ppalgaeyo
Why is your face so red? (빨갛다 → 빨개요)
저는 파란 하늘을 보면 기분이 좋아져요.
jeoneun paran haneureul bomyeon gibuni joajeoyo
My mood lifts when I see a blue sky. (파랗다 → 파란 modifier)
밤새 눈이 와서 온 세상이 하얘요.
bamsae nuni waseo on sesang-i hayaeyo
It snowed all night, so the whole world is white. (하얗다 → 하얘요, the ㅒ member)
Before a plain consonant, the ㅎ just aspirates
The part most learners never get told: the ㅎ-drop fires only before 아/어 and 으. Before an ordinary consonant ending — -고, -지, -게, -다 — the ㅎ stays in the spelling and behaves like any ㅎ batchim, aspirating the following consonant. So the dictionary form 그렇다 is pronounced [그러타], and the adverb 그렇게 is [그러케].
| Form | Spelled | Pronounced | RR |
|---|---|---|---|
| dictionary | 그렇다 | [그러타] | geureota |
| and (-고) | 그렇고 | [그러코] | geureoko |
| adverb (-게) | 그렇게 | [그러케] | geureoke |
| -지 (contracted 죠) | 그렇죠 | [그러초] | geureocho |
그렇게 말하면 안 돼요.
geureoke malhamyeon an dwaeyo
You shouldn't put it like that. (그렇게 [그러케], ㅎ aspirates the ㄱ)
맞아요, 그렇죠.
majayo, geureocho
Right, that's how it is. (그렇죠 [그러초])
The exceptions: 좋다 and every ㅎ-final verb
This is the boundary that separates the ㅎ-irregular from its look-alikes, and it runs cleanly along part of speech:
- Nearly all ㅎ-final adjectives are irregular (the whole table above), except 좋다 "be good," which is fully regular. 좋다 keeps its ㅎ in spelling and just lets it delete or aspirate in pronunciation: 좋아요 [조아요], 좋은 [조은], 좋고 [조코]. There is no ×좨요, no ×존.
- Nearly all ㅎ-final verbs are regular: 넣다 "put in," 놓다 "place," 낳다 "give birth" all keep the ㅎ and conjugate straight — 넣어요, 놓아요, 낳아요 — none fusing to the ㅐ vowel of the adjective class (no ×내요 for 넣다).
| Word | Part of speech | Class | -아/어요 | -(으)ㄴ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 좋다 (good) | adjective | REGULAR (lone exception) | 좋아요 (joayo) | 좋은 (joeun) |
| 넣다 (put in) | verb | regular | 넣어요 (neo-eoyo) | 넣은 (neo-eun) |
| 놓다 (place) | verb | regular | 놓아요 (noayo) | 놓은 (noeun) |
| 낳다 (give birth) | verb | regular | 낳아요 (naayo) | 낳은 (naeun) |
이 노래 진짜 좋아요.
i norae jinjja joayo
This song is really good. (좋다 is regular → 좋아요, never ×좨요)
가방은 그냥 여기 놓아 주세요.
gabang-eun geunyang yeogi noa juseyo
Just set the bag down here. (놓다 is a regular verb → 놓아)
Reframing for English speakers
An English speaker's reflex is to keep every letter of a stem and just bolt on the ending — which manufactures the two commonest ㅎ errors at once: ×그렇어요 (kept the ㅎ) and ×그러요 (dropped the ㅎ but kept the wrong vowel). Neither is Korean. The model that works is: ㅎ-deletion here is not subtraction, it is fusion. 그렇 + 어요 does not become 그러 + 어요; it collapses the stem-final syllable and the ending into a single new syllable, 그래요. Treat 그래 / 그런 / 그렇게 as three faces of one word, and you stop trying to glue the ㅎ back where it does not belong.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping the ㅎ before a vowel ending. The ㅎ must drop and fuse to ㅐ.
❌ 왜 그렇어요?
Wrong — the ㅎ drops and fuses to ㅐ → 그래요, never ×그렇어요.
✅ 왜 그래요?
wae geuraeyo
What's the matter?
2. Dropping the ㅎ but keeping the stem vowel. The fusion forces ㅐ; ㅏ does not survive.
❌ 사과가 참 빨갛아요.
Wrong — 빨갛 loses its ㅎ and fuses to 개 → 빨개요, not ×빨갛아요 / ×빨가요.
✅ 사과가 참 빨개요.
sagwaga cham ppalgaeyo
The apple is really red.
3. Making 좋다 irregular. 좋다 is the lone regular ㅎ-adjective; it never fuses.
❌ 오늘은 기분이 참 좨요.
Wrong — 좋다 is regular; it stays 좋아요, there is no ×좨요.
✅ 오늘은 기분이 참 좋아요.
oneureun gibuni cham joayo
I'm in a really good mood today.
4. Forming the attributive with -은. After the ㅎ drops it is bare -ㄴ, never -은.
❌ 저는 그렇은 사람이 싫어요.
Wrong — the attributive is 그런, never ×그렇은.
✅ 저는 그런 사람이 싫어요.
jeoneun geureon sarami sireoyo
I don't like that kind of person.
Key Takeaways
- Before 아/어: the ㅎ drops and fuses to ㅐ — 그렇다 → 그래요, 어떻다 → 어때요, 빨갛다 → 빨개요 (하얗다 → 하얘요, the lone ㅒ).
- Before an 으 ending: the ㅎ and the 으 vanish — modifier 그런/빨간 (bare -ㄴ), causal 그러니까.
- Before -고/-지/-게/-다 the ㅎ stays and aspirates the next consonant: 그렇게 [그러케].
- Part of speech predicts the class: ㅎ-adjectives irregular (except 좋다), ㅎ-verbs regular (넣다, 놓다, 낳다).
- Kill the fossilized errors: ×그렇어요, ×그러요, ×빨갛아요, ×그렇은, ×좨요.
Now practice Korean
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Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- Irregular vs Regular: The Look-Alike Master TableTOPIK 3 — The cheat-card for the question learners actually ask — 'this verb ends in ㄷ/ㅅ/ㅂ/ㅎ/르, does it inflect irregularly?' A single minimal-pair table sets each irregular next to a regular verb with the same final consonant, so you can see that irregularity is lexical, not spelling-based, and that the safe default for an unknown verb is REGULAR.
- Modifier (Attributive) Endings (관형사형 어미): Reference GridTOPIK 3 — The endings that turn a whole clause into a modifier sitting in front of a noun — Korean's relative clauses — crossed by predicate type and tense, with the crucial split: -는 marks a present-tense VERB, while -(으)ㄴ marks a present ADJECTIVE or a PAST verb.
- 으-Drop Verbs (으 탈락): Full TableTOPIK 1 — The complete lookup grid for the 으-drop pattern — any stem whose final vowel is ㅡ drops it before an 아/어 ending (쓰다 → 써요), with harmony set by the syllable one step back (바쁘다 → 바빠요, 예쁘다 → 예뻐요). The most systematic of all the 'irregular' classes, with zero lexical exceptions.
- The ㅎ Irregular: 그렇다 → 그래요, 그런TOPIK 2 — ㅎ-final adjectives like 그렇다, 이렇다, 저렇다, 어떻다 drop their ㅎ before a vowel ending and fuse the leftover into ㅐ — so 그렇다 becomes 그래요 and 그런, never ×그렇어요 or ×그러요. The output vowel is almost always ㅐ regardless of the stem vowel.
- Ending Attachment After Batchim (받침 이형태): Allomorphy ReferenceTOPIK 2 — The single rule sheet behind dozens of particles and endings — which allomorph attaches after a vowel-final stem versus a consonant-final (받침) stem — reduced to one idea: after a batchim insert 으/은/을/이, after a vowel don't, and ㄹ behaves half like a vowel.