Naming

Question 1

What is the first rule for naming ionic compounds?

Answer 1

The cation is named first and its name is not changed.

Question 2

What is the second rule for naming ionic compounds?

Answer 2

The anion is named next and its name is changed if it is a monatomic anion but not changed if it is a polyatomic anion.

Question 3

What happens to the name of a monoatomic anion when we change it?

Answer 3

We take the element name, remove the last few letters and add “ide” instead.

Question 4

When naming ionic compounds, how is the specific charge of a transition metal indicated?

Answer 4

It is noted after the cation name in brackets using Roman numeral.

Question 5

What is the first rule for naming covalent compounds?

Answer 5

The first element’s name in the formula is NOT changed.

Question 6

How is the second element’s name changed in covalent compounds?

Answer 6

By removing the last few letters and adding ‘ide’.

Question 7

What is the third rule in naming covalent compounds?

Answer 7

We use the prefixes before the element’s names to indicate the number of atoms of that element in the formula.

Question 8

What do we do if the first element has only 1 atom in the formula

Answer 8

We do not write “mono” as the element name itself implies there is only 1 atom of it in the formula.