Q.Ethanoic acid, treated with P/Br2, gives 2-bromoethanoic acid. This reaction is called a) Finkelstein reaction b) Haloform reaction c) Hell-Volhard-Zelinsky reaction d) none of these

Step 1. Ethanoic acid, treated with P/Br2, gives 2-bromoethanoic acid -- bromine has been installed specifically at the ALPHA-carbon (the CH3 carbon, directly bonded to -COOH), not anywhere else in the molecule.

Step 2. This exact transformation -- alpha-halogenation of a carboxylic acid bearing an alpha-hydrogen, using a small catalytic amount of red phosphorus with Cl2 or Br2 -- is the textbook's own named reaction, the Hell-Volhard-Zelinsky (HVZ) reaction (Section 12.12.D.1). …

Recognise the P/red-P-catalysed halogen (Br2/Cl2) reacting specifically at a carboxylic acid's alpha-position as the defining signature of the HVZ reaction, distinct from Finkelstei …

• Confusing this with the haloform reaction just because both involve a halogen and NaOH-adjacent chemistry -- the haloform reaction specifically needs a CH3-CO- methyl-ke …