Question

how do alcohol differ from alkanes

Answer 1

alkanes donot have any functional group
alcohol has the functional group -OH(hydroxy)
carbons in alkanes are connected through single bonds and the left out valency of the carbons is filled with carbon.
Eg. CH3-CH3(ethane)
whereas in alcohols the final hydrogen in the carbon chain is removed and is replaced by the functional group -OH
Eg. CH3-CH2-OH
 

Answer 2

Alkanes and alcohols are similar in that they can contain long or short chains of carbon atoms that are surrounded by hydrogen atoms. The special difference between an alkane chain and an alcohol chain is that an alcohol has what is called a hydroxyl group bonded to one of the carbons, replacing a simple hydrogen.