Alcohol Nomenclature help

I don't understand the IUPAC rules for naming alcohols.

Most of the times we use the suffix -ol at the end of the name of an alcohol.

However when do we use the prefix hydroxy- ?

Can someone give examples and please help.
Thanks.

I'm assuming this is for Alevel chem, it should be explained in most AS textbooks however for a quick understanding:


It depends on the functional groups you have within a molecule.
-ol is used where Alcohol takes priority for the main functional group.

For example, within a benzene ring, hydrocarbon.
(Butanol, Methanol, Benzene 1,2,3 - triol)

However when we have multiple functional groups where a different functional group takes priority within a molecule we use Hydroxy-
This is mainly for more oxidised groups such as carboxylic acids or ketones/aldehydes.

(2-Hydroxybutanal or 2-Hydroxypentanoic acid)

Thanks a lot this helped

No it's actually for first year of uni, I forgot almost everything at A level
After reading your reply, it's coming back to me now

Ah okay, not a problem.
Good luck with it all.