Series of copolymers ethylene oxide and alkylglycidyl ether (EO-co-AGE), ethylene oxide-3,3-di(alkoxymethyl)propyl glycidyl ether (EO-co-DAGE) and poly(alkyl glycidyl ether) ((POM/POE)-PAGE) have been synthesised, as associating water-soluble polymers, where the hydrophobic substituents (less than 1% mole fraction) are, respectively, randomly distributed along the chain or present as dimers or as long sequences. The synthesis of initial hydrophobic monomers and the copolymer preparation are shortly described. The associative properties of these new associating samples were studied as functions of length, distribution, mole fraction of hydrophobes and polymer concentration, using fluorescence, light scattering and viscosimetry. Generally, these comb-like associating polymers do nor exhibit thickening properties as good as those of the equivalent telechelic polymers of the same chemical composition. This difference is attributed to the formation of intra-molecular hydrophobic association favoured in cases of comb structure with respect to the telechelic ones. However, a great influence of the sequentiality of the hydrophobe distribution was observed. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.