The purpose on this study is to optimize the chromatographic determination method of trace aldehydes in ambient air. Carbonyl compounds in urban air were trapped at $C_{18}$ DNPH-coated cartridges, and generated hydrazone derivatives were separated by HPLC and detected by UV-vis spectroscopic detector at 360nm. Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde compounds could be isolated from urban(Seoul) air with more than 95% collection efficiency. The analytical detection limits for formaldehyde and acetaldehyde are 0.06pp $b_{v}$, 0.08pp $b_{v}$ for 108 L air samples, respectively. The precision of this method are 3 .sim. 4%(RSD) for mutiple injection of hydrazone standards. Separation of seven dinitrophenylhydrazones could be achieved in appoximately 20 minutes operation time using $C_{18}$ column with apprepriate eluent. The method was applied to the analysis of aldehydes and ketone in Seoul ambient air. The 24-h ambient levels of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde reached up to 6 .sim. 14 and 3 .sim. 8ppbv, respectively. The daily average concentration ratio were 0.60 for acetaldehyde/formaldehyde.yde.