The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described.

• The symbol for the alveolar sibilant is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z. The IPA letter is not normally used for dental or postalveolar sibilants unless modified by a diacritic ( and respectively).
• The IPA symbol for the alveolar non-sibilant fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be or .