Question: is formaldehyde a ketone or aldehyde?
Answer: If at least one of these substituents is hydrogen, the compound is an aldehyde. If neither is hydrogen, the compound is a ketone. The IUPAC system of nomenclature assigns a characteristic suffix to these classes, al to aldehydes and one to ketones. For example, H2C=O is methanal, more commonly called formaldehyde.