This suffix is making me dizzy: -oate

In Lesson 17-4, there is a suffix -oate can be used in :

dissociated type of carboxylic acid (COO^-), and also in ester (R-O-R).

We get confused with acid because the suffix of acid is -ate.

I found that even Google translate has a hard time to differentiate. Last time I was reading an article regarding to 3-methylbutyl pentanoate, 3-methylbutyl 3-methylbutyrate,  3-methylbutyl 2-methylbutyrate, butyl pentanoate and propyl hexanoate. When I checked these five compounds in Google translate, it translated them as acid or ester. Fortunately, they are referred as esters in that article.

Those compounds are the five esters that can be detected in dead and decomposed human cadavers.

Source: Wikipedia

However, -oate is not the worst one. The worst chemical suffix is -ane!

Reference:

E. Cuypers et. al., 2015. The Search for a Volatile Human Specific Marker in the Decomposition Process. PLOS One. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137341

中文版

好頭昏的字尾：-oate

在第十七課（三）與（四），大家應該發現有個特別的字尾：

-oate

這個字尾可以表示很多不同的化合物，包括

carboxylic acid（-COOH，羧酸）： carboxy- ，-oate ，-oic acid

不過-oate在羧酸是用於解離態，也就是-COO^-

另外就是ester（R-O-R，酯類）：(R)-oxycarbonyl，-oate

有時酸的字尾也會跟-oate搞混，沒辦法，因為解離態的酸的字尾是 -ate，跟 -oate只差一個字。

圖片來源：wiki

前陣子，筆者在讀一篇有關為什麼搜救犬可以聞出人的遺體，不會跟其他動物的遺體弄混的研究報告時，就發現連Google翻譯都沒辦法翻出以-oate為字尾的化合物，所以3-甲基丁基戊酯（3-methylbutyl pentanoate）、3-甲基丁基-3-甲基丁酯（3-methylbutyl 3-methylbutyrate）、3-甲基丁基2-甲基丁酯（3-methylbutyl 2-methylbutyrate）、戊酸丁酯（butyl pentanoate） 與 propyl hexanoate在Google翻譯中，有時翻成酸、有時翻成酯，幸好原文已經提到這五種都是酯類，不然還真是一團混亂啊！

不過，其實-oate還不是最頭昏的；-ane還更勝一籌呢！

參考文獻：

E. Cuypers et. al., 2015. The Search for a Volatile Human Specific Marker in the Decomposition Process. PLOS One. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137341