1. Ethers are colourless, sweet smelling highly volatile, inflammable2 substances. They are sparingly soluble in water since their oxygen atom is not capable of forming H-bond with hydrogen of water.
2. Their boiling points are much lower than the isomeric alcohols. This is because of absence of -OH group in ethers and hence they are incapable of forming intermolecular hydrogen bonds.
3. Since the two C-O bonds in ethers are not linear (180°) but they are at an angle of about 110°, i.e., the molecule is bent, the dipole moment of the two C-O bonds do not cancel each other.
