Question

How do you read the hydrogen NMR spectrum?

Answer 1

Hopefully correctly.

Explanation:

In texts, and on the internet there are any number of tables that predict the probable chemical shifts of given protons in the `""^1H` `NMR` spectrum. There are also compendia of NMR spectra that have already been recorded. My advice is to you is to forget the former entirely, and concentrate on the symmetry of the molecule you investigate, and how many `""^1H` environments a proposed structure would generate.

Look at this previous previous answer.

So on a practical level, `""^1H` `NMR` spectroscopy gives you 2 things: (i) chemical shifts; and (ii) the number of absorbing species (i.e. the number of protons) for each absorbing species. Both can be used to adduce symmetry and structure.