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an alcohol?

tagoot

Senior Member
Japanese
"If you dry the virus out in the air, it keeps its stability. But now surround it with a high concentration of an alcohol, like the ethanol and isopropanol found in most hand-sanitizers. This makes the hydrophobic effect disappear and gives the molecules room to move around."
[From video clip "Which is better: soap or hand sanitizer?" DonnyB - moderator]

I don't understand why the indefinite article "an" precedes the material noun alcohol. Is it just a mistake, or does it mean a molecule of alcohol?
I would appreciate it if you would explain it.
Last edited by a moderator:
I guess its because there are many types of alcohol. Ethanol and isopropanol are two types. Other types include methyl, butyl, and amyl alcohols.
'Alcohol' in everyday language is ethanol, the kind of alcohol found in drinks, and that's uncountable, but in chemistry it's a class of compounds similar to ethanol.
Thank you, heypresto and entangledbank. I understand your explanations. However, do you use the indefinite article "an" in this context yourself? I thought "with a high concentration of alcohol" was enough. Which do you think is more common?
The article is needed because the text is referring to any one of the chemical class "alcohols". If there was no article "alcohol" would mean "ethanol".
heypresto, entangledbank and Andygc, thank you all. I appreciate your swift and kind replies. This was a good lesson!!
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