For example, the distinction between alveolar and alveolo-palatal consonants is only made by the elderly while the younger generations do not normally distinguish them.

The alveolo-palatal consonants included in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

However, in contrast to the háček which is usually used for postalveolar consonants, the kreska denotes alveolo-palatal consonants.

These consonants are similar to palato-alveolar consonants, but alveolo-palatal consonants are more fully palatalized.

The alveolo-palatal consonants are in complementary distribution with the alveolar consonants , retroflex consonants , and velar consonants , which they derive from historically.

Unlike the other Cantonese romanization schemes, Guangdong romanization indicates a difference between the alveolar consonants z, c, s and the alveolo-palatal consonants j, q, x. Cantonese typically does not differentiate these two types of consonants because they are allophones that occur in complementary distributions.