Label the acetyl methyl , the methylene , and the terminal methyl in . The assignments areThe NMR multiplet centre of the NMR quartet is the mean of its outer lines, ppm. Its adjacent lines differ by 0.024 ppm; the NMR triplet has the same spacing. ThereforeThe two groups, through vicinal coupling, split one another into the expected NMR quartet and NMR triplet. The acetyl methyl has no resolved neighbouring proton across its adjacent carbonyl and appears as a NMR singlet. The integrals sum to eight protons.
