Phonetically similar sounds might be related in two ways. If they are two distinctive phonemes, they are said to form a phonemic contrast, e. g. /p/ and /b/ in /pɪt/ and /bɪt/. If they are allophones of the same phoneme, then they do not distinguish meaning, but complement each other in distribution, i.e. they occur in different phonetic environments. For instance, the clear /l/ always occurs before a vowel while the dark /l/ always occurs between a vowel and a consonant, or at the end of a word. So the allophones are said to be in complementary distribution.