Question

Hi there,

I'm working on ester nomenclature but I'm wondering why sometimes the ending is "-ate" and sometimes it's "-oate". For example, I have a problem with benzyl benzoate and cyclopropyl cyclohexanecarboxylate. Thank you!

Answer 1

Ans :

The names of the esters are derived by the alcohol and acid used to prepare the ester compound.

When the name of acid is like propanoic acid , ethanoic acid , methanoic acid , the name of ester ends with -oate , like propanoate , ethanoate and methanoate respectively.

But when the names of acids are like cyclohexane carboxylic acid , the name of ester will end as -ate , such as cyclohexanecarboxylate.

The bottom lime to remember is that the names basically end with ate , be it ate or oate , so it is always "ate".