Aldehyde and Ketone Blank Reaction Map Practice

All 12 boxes on the diagram

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Adds H or C 6

Primary alcohol A hydride reagent reduces an aldehyde to a primary alcohol. Two hydrogen atoms add to the C=O bond.
Secondary alcohol A hydride reagent reduces a ketone to a secondary alcohol. The carbonyl carbon keeps its two carbon groups.
Tertiary alcohol A Grignard reagent adds a carbon group to a ketone. Acid then gives a tertiary alcohol; with an aldehyde the product is a secondary alcohol.
Cyanohydrin Hydrogen cyanide adds across the carbonyl group. One carbon ends up holding an OH group and a CN group.
Alkene The Wittig reaction puts a C=C bond where the C=O bond was.
Alkane The carbonyl group becomes a CH2 group. This is the Wolff-Kishner reduction; the Clemmensen reduction, zinc amalgam in acid, gives the same product.

Adds O or N 6

Hydrate Water adds to the carbonyl group to give a hydrate. A hydrate is also called a geminal diol: two OH groups on one carbon.
Hemiacetal One alcohol molecule adds to give a hemiacetal. Its carbon holds an OH group and an OR group.
Acetal Two alcohol molecules add to give an acetal, and water leaves. An acetal made from a ketone was once called a ketal.
Imine A primary amine gives an imine, which has a C=N bond. Water leaves. An imine is also called a Schiff base.
Enamine A secondary amine gives an enamine, and water leaves. The name joins alkene and amine: the nitrogen sits on a C=C carbon.
Carboxylic acid An oxidizing agent turns an aldehyde into a carboxylic acid. A ketone has no hydrogen on its carbonyl carbon and does not react this way.

How this list was compiled: Every arrow (the reagent, the class of product and whether it works on an aldehyde, a ketone or both) was read on 2026-10-03 in two course texts and kept only where both give it: (1) Organic Chemistry (Morsch and others), chapter 19, Aldehydes and Ketones: Nucleophilic Addition Reactions, sections 19.3 and 19.5 to 19.11, an openly licensed university text read in its LibreTexts copy; (2) the course notes of a university organic chemistry course, chapter 17, Aldehydes and Ketones: Nucleophilic Addition to C=O (University of Calgary, Department of Chemistry). The names of the classes were also read in the English Wikipedia articles Aldehyde and Ketone. The layout, the wording on the arrows and every line are our own. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-03 by a script from the table of this page. Own original chart; nothing traced or copied. Licence: own work

How it works

This reaction map puts the starting compound, an aldehyde or a ketone, in the middle. Each arrow out of it carries a reagent and ends at a blank box: name the class of compound that arrow makes.

Read the full guide

Start in the middle

The middle box is the starting compound. An aldehyde and a ketone are both built on a C=O group, the carbonyl group.

Read the arrow

Each arrow names what reacts with the carbonyl group. The left half of the map adds hydrogen or carbon; the right half adds oxygen or nitrogen.

Name the box

Pick the class of compound the arrow makes. Four arrows say which starting compound they are for, because there an aldehyde and a ketone do not give the same product. More options holds the printouts: the blank map and the map with its answer key.

A primary amine gives an imine; a secondary amine gives an enamine.
Hemiacetal means half an acetal: one alcohol molecule has added, not two.

Questions and answers

What is the difference between an aldehyde and a ketone?

Both have a C=O group. In an aldehyde the carbonyl carbon holds a hydrogen atom; in a ketone it holds two carbon groups. That hydrogen is why an aldehyde is oxidized to a carboxylic acid and a ketone is not under the same conditions.

What does sodium borohydride do to an aldehyde or a ketone?

It reduces the C=O group to an alcohol. An aldehyde gives a primary alcohol and a ketone gives a secondary alcohol. Lithium aluminum hydride does the same.

What is the difference between a hemiacetal and an acetal?

A hemiacetal forms when one alcohol molecule adds to the carbonyl group: its carbon holds an OH group and an OR group. In an acetal a second alcohol molecule has replaced the OH group, so the carbon holds two OR groups.

Which reactions turn a ketone into an alkane?

The Wolff-Kishner reduction, which uses hydrazine and then a base with heat, and the Clemmensen reduction, which uses zinc amalgam in acid. Both turn the C=O group into a CH2 group.