# grans alcohols



## Matti

Hola de nou!

Que vol dir "grans alcohols" en aquesta frase:

"La pell de la cirera està recoberta d’una capa de cera composta per èsters d’ àcids grassos d’alt pes molecular i grans alcohols"

Grácies (No poso res perque no tinc cap idea!)


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## papillon

Could this be equivalent to the English _grain alcohol_, which in this case would be ethanol?? I found a Catalan word gra for grain....

Wait for the natives!


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## Matti

Hi papillon!

yep, that's what I thought, "grans alcohols" = 'grain alcohol' but I was too scared to stick my foot in it. I think the 'natives' are probably fed up with me and this never ending 'cherry' translation. Thanks for both of your replies!


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## betulina

Hi!

What the grammar tells me about this "grans alcohols" is that it is "big alcohols", meaning that they are heavy, too, like the fatty acids. Does that make sense? 

Matti, your questions are always welcome!


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## papillon

Hmm, on second thought perhaps _grans_ is just big, meaning what would be called long-chain alcohol. These consist of a long chain of carbon atoms ending with a hydroxyl group. In this case, using big to describe an alcohol is a bit strange, but plausible...

EDIT: Betulina was faster! Yes, that makes sense, indeed alcohol would then be high molecular weight, like the fatty acids.


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## betulina

papillon said:


> Hmm, on second thought perhaps _grans_ is just big, meaning what would be called long-chain alcohol. These consist of a long chain of carbon atoms ending with a hydroxyl group. In this case, using big to describe an alcohol is a bit strange, but plausible...
> 
> EDIT: Betulina was faster! Yes, that makes sense, indeed alcohol would then be high molecular weight, like the fatty acids.



That's it, then, because if the text is originally well-written in Catalan it is really strange having "grans alcohols" where "grans" is also a noun. It must be an adjective, "gran", which is "big". 

Again, science and grammar are a good match!


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## chics

Big alcohol chaines.


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## ernest_

betulina said:


> That's it, then, because if the text is originally well-written in Catalan it is really strange having "grans alcohols" where "grans" is also a noun. It must be an adjective, "gran", which is "big".



It is not only strange, it is grammatically incorrect. A noun can't modify another noun. Nouns only accept adjectives as modifiers, as you said. "Grain alcohol", would be "alcohol de gra", where "de gra" is the adjective.


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## Matti

Hi 
I've just had 'una crisis informatica' so have only just read your messages.

What a shame, "grain alcohol"  seemed such an easy solution if somewhat incomprehensible. So looks like I'm going to have to go for "long-chain alcohol" in some form (I could do with some myself!).

Gràcies a tots! Cheers!


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