Aldehydes

Aldehydes (R-CHO) take the suffix “-al“. If other functional groups are present, the chain is numbered such that the aldehyde carbon is in the “1” position, unless functional groups of higher precedence are present.

If a prefix form is required, “oxo-” is used (as for ketones), with the position number indicating the end of a chain: CHOCH₂COOH is 3-oxopropanoic acid. If the carbon in the carbonyl group cannot be included in the attached chain (for instance in the case of cyclic aldehydes), the prefix “formyl-” or the suffix “-carbaldehyde” is used: C₆H₁₁CHO is cyclohexanecarbaldehyde. If an aldehyde is attached to a benzene and is the main functional group, the suffix becomes benzaldehyde.