In the crystalline N,N'-dimethylated uracil derivatives Za, b, the kinetically stabilized enol group forms an H-bond with 0-C(4), as demonstrated by increased shielding of specifically labelled 2a and 2b in the I70-NMR spectra (~lS('~o)(C(4)-0) = -30 ppm); absence of dilution and solvent effects show that the H-bridge is intramolecular, forming an eight-membered chelate ring. The (apparent) shielding effect dS("O) in Za,h is larger than that in salicylamide. The strong H-bond explains why the enols 2, in spite of the absence of steric hindrance, are kinetically stabilized.Introduction. -In spite of their lower thermodynamic stability, simple nonconjugated enols are often not too unstable under appropriate conditions (absence of catalysts, aprotic solvents) and can sometimes even be isolated, before being tautomerized to the more stable carbonyl compounds [2]. Even vinyl alcohol has a lifetime of several min at room temperature in MeCN solution 131. The reason for this sluggishness of ketonisation is that the rate-determining step, uiz. the transfer of a proton to C(a), is not a rapid reaction [4]; this contrasts with the reactions of the same enols with halogen or similar electrophiles, which are nearly diffusion-controlled [5]. Increased kinetic stability is