Oxygenated additives are known to reduce soot formation in diesel engines. Numerous studies, both experimental and numerical, have reported that the reduction of particulate emissions depends on the molecular structure of the additives. In this paper, a structural group contribution approach is proposed to interpret experimental observations on the effect of oxygenated additives on the sooting propensities of hydrocarbon fuels. The statistically based method makes it possible to distinguish between chemical effects caused by the presence of oxygenated groups in the fuel mixture and mere dilution of the original fuel by the additive. The analysis was carried out on several experimental databases encompassing both premixed and nonpremixed configurations that include a new extensive set of smoke point measurements for mixtures of a given fuel with several oxygenated molecules. The current approach unifies the conclusions on the relative efficiency of the various oxygenated functionalities such as alcohols, esters, ethers, and carbonyl groups and provides a potential explanation for the seemingly contradictory trends exhibited by some raw experimental data. (C) 2008 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.