• The finals
m and
ng can only be used as stand-alone
nasal syllables. • The finals
om and
op occur only with the initials
k and
h. (And these finals are now pronounced differently from
am and
ap by just a conservative minority of speakers, who consequently have for example 柑
kom ‘mandarin orange’ distinct from 金
kam ‘gold’.) • Only when
ts,
ts‘, or
s is the initial can
z occur as the final, and these initials are among the ones with which
i as final does not occur (these two circumstances together meaning that a complementary distribution exists between the two finals). • When [j] is the initial, and
i,
im,
in,
ip,
it, or
iu is used with it as the final, the spelling does not bother to write an initial
y (because zero-initial preceding these finals does not occur), which results in the spellings being merely
i,
im,
in,
ip,
it, and
iu; however, in
yik and
ying, the
y is nonetheless redundantly written. • When [j] is the initial, and
ue,
uen, or
uet is the final, the
y is for the same reason omitted. • When [w] is the initial, and
oo,
ooi,
oon, or
oot is the final, the
w is in parallel omitted. • Unlike most modern systems of Cantonese romanization, a distinction is made between two series of sibilants, which means there is still a difference between for example 卅 and 沙, the former being represented by
sa while the latter is written as
sha. ==Tones==