Monosaccharide is formed from the Greek word mono meaning one and saccharin meaning sugar. Monosaccharide means a single sugar. Carbohydrates that do not yield any other simple carbohydrate units when broken down or analyzed are called monosaccharides. Their common symbol is CnH2nOn. Monosaccharides have 3-10 carbons. Monosaccharides have a free aldehyde group (-CHO) at carbon 1 or a ketone group (>C=O) at carbon 2, so they are called reducing sugars or reducing sugars. Monosaccharides with aldehyde groups are called aldoses and monosaccharides with ketone groups are called ketoses. Aldehyde and ketone groups are reducing groups and sugars containing reducing groups are called reducing sugars.