I am in introductory chemistry. I am having difficulty naming compounds. The end
ID: 684575 • Letter: I
Question
I am in introductory chemistry.I am having difficulty naming compounds. The endings-ide, -ic, -ous, and when to use the prefixes of hydro, andhypo. There seem to be so many exceptions to therules that I am confused. I also don't know when to addthe word 'ion' to the end of a name? Is there a secret toremembering all of these? I am in introductory chemistry.
I am having difficulty naming compounds. The endings-ide, -ic, -ous, and when to use the prefixes of hydro, andhypo. There seem to be so many exceptions to therules that I am confused. I also don't know when to addthe word 'ion' to the end of a name? Is there a secret toremembering all of these?
Explanation / Answer
Hi there! Yes, this can be quite difficult. A lot of it is rotememorization. When I had to go through this, I googled a flashcardprogram and found mnemosyne. It's a free, open-source program thatutilizes a pretty fancy memory algorithm to show you cards thatyou'll remember. That's what I did for polyatomics likeH3PO4 and stuff like that. There are certain rules you can use though. One that I like toremember is that if something had an -ate ending, you ate it and itbecomes an -ic because you got sick =P Just silly stuff like thatcan help. By knowing that rule, you then know that -ite endingsbecome -ous. There are some patterns to all of it. Hope that helps.I accidentaly deleted my chem flashcards when I was done with mylast semester. If you use mnemosyne, don't do that =[
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