Organic Chemistry-Summer, 2011

Functional group Secondary suffix Functional group Secondary suffix
Alcohols (-OH) -ol Aldehydes (-CHO) -al
Ketones (>C=O) -one Carboxylic acids (-COOH) -oic acid
Amines (-NH2 ) -amine Acid amides (-CONH2 ) -amide
Acid chlorides (-COCL) -oyl chloride Esters (-COOR) -oate
Nitrites (-C=N) -nitrite Thioalcohols (-SH) -thiol

Nomenclature of compounds having polyfunctional groups:

When an organic compound contains two or more functional groups, one group is called the principal functional group while the others are called the secondary functional groups and are treated as substituents: The order of preference for principal group is: Carboxylic acid > acid anhydrides > esters > acid halides > amides > nitrites > aldehydes > ketone > alcohols > amines > double bond > triple bond

When the functional groups act as substituents, they ar named as:

Functional group Prefix Functional group Prefix
- COOH Carboxy -CHO Formyl
-COOR Alkoxy cabonyl or Carbalkoxy >CO Oxo or Kelo
-COCL Chloroformyl -OH Hydroxy
-CONH2 Carbamoyl -SH Mecaplo
-CN Cyano -NH2 Amino
-OR Akoxy =NH Imino
-X Halo -NO2 Nitro