The very distinctive decrease in the 3250 cm -1 peak intensity in the solute-correlated spectra points towards the fact that the hydration shell molecules under consideration, are further away (than their bulk phase counterparts) from meeting the perfect resonance conditions for the Fermi resonance between the fundamental O-H symmetric stretching mode and the first overtone of the H-O-H bending mode of vibration. This is likely to have been caused by a depletion in the number of hydrogenbonding interactions per molecule in the hydration shell, compared to the number of such interactions possible in the bulk phase. The drop in the number of hydrogen-bonding interactions per molecule leaves the solvation shell with less means to support intermolecular coupling that would facilitate the Fermi resonance.