Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Quaternary Nomenclature:

The primary or 1?, secondary or 2?, tertiary or 3? and quaternary or 4? nomenclature is employed in a range of situations: to describe a carbon center, or to describe functional groups like alcohols, halides, amines and amides. Recognizing functional groups in this way can be significant because the properties and reactive of these groups may differ depending upon whether they are primary or 1?, secondary or 2?, tertiary or 3? and quaternary or 4?.