text: can sumbody give me the basics of iupac nomenclature for organic compounds? i kinda remember the fundamentals like choosing the longest carbon chain n numberin the c-atoms but am not 2 sure.. pooja, you are baiscally on the right track. you choose the longsest chain. it can sometimes get tricky to choose the longset and there is where organic chem can get a little tricky.  once you have identfied the longest chain, you need to see how much h "connection" are there.  the next step is to see the relationship between h and c.  if it is a 1 to 1 relationship, you have to keep in mind certain implications.  if however, c is more than h you need to know that you are dealing with heavy compounds and this as i'm sur you nkow, needs to be dealt with diffrently.