In Chapter 12 “Organic Chemistry: Alkanes and Halogenated Hydrocarbons” and Chapter 13 “Unsaturated and Aromatic Hydrocarbons”, we considered several kinds of hydrocarbons. Now we examine some of the many organic compounds that contain functional groups. We first introduced the idea of the functional group, a specific structural arrangement of atoms or bonds that imparts a characteristic chemical reactivity to the molecule, in Chapter 4 “Covalent Bonding and Simple Molecular Compounds”, Section 4.6 “Introduction to Organic Chemistry”. If you understand the behavior of a particular functional group, you will know a great deal about the general properties of that class of compounds. In this chapter and Chapter 15 “Organic Acids and Bases and Some of Their Derivatives”, we make a brief yet systematic study of some of organic compound families. Each family is based on a common, simple functional group that contains an oxygen atom or a nitrogen atom. Some common functional groups are listed in Table 14.1 “Selected Organic Functional Groups”.

Table 14.1 Selected Organic Functional Groups

Name of Family	General Formula	Functional Group	Suffix*
alkane	RH	none	–ane
alkene	R2C=CR2		–ene
alkyne	RC≡CR	–C≡C–	–yne
alcohol	ROH	–OH	–ol
thiol	RSH	–SH	–thiol
ether	ROR	–O–	ether
aldehyde			–al
ketone			–one
carboxylic acid			–oic acid
*Ethers do not have a suffix in their common name; all ethers end with the word ether.