Flowchart for Naming Chemical Compounds
START
How many elements are in the
compound?
Two
Three or more
Is the first element a
metal?
Does the formula begin
with NH4?
No
Yes
The compound is ionic.
Does it contain a
transition metal?
Yes
Name the metal,
give the charge as
a Roman
numeral in
brackets, then
name the nonmetal, but
change its ending
to –ide.
END
No
The compound is
covalent. Use the
prefixes to name the
first element (except don’t
use mono- for the first
one), then use the prefixes
to name the second
element as well.
END
Name the
metal, then
name the nonmetal, but
change its
ending to
–ide.
END
One
Name the non-metal element, but
change its ending to –ide. The
compound name is ammonium
something-ide.
END
No
Yes
Name the metal, then
name the polyatomic
anion using your list.
Don’t change any parts of
the names.
The compound name
begins with
ammonium.
END
How many elements are left
after NH4?
Two or more
Name the polyatomic anion. Don’t
change any parts of the name. The
compound name is ammonium
something.
END
Flowchart for Writing Formulas for Chemical Compounds
START
Does the name contain
prefixes?
Yes
No
Is the first name
ammonium?
The compound is
covalent. Write the
symbol for each element
and use the prefixes to
find the subscripts.
END
No
Yes
The compound is ionic.
Does the name contain a
Roman numeral?
Yes
The compound is ionic
and contains NH41+. Is
the anion name on the list
of polyatomic anions?
No
The Roman numeral
gives the charge on
the metal ion. Use this
when balancing the
charges.
Determine the charge of the
cation from the periodic table
(the group number).
Is the anion name
on the list of
polyatomic ions?
No
Yes
Yes
No
Find the charge of the anion using the periodic
table and use this with the cation charge to
balance the charges. You can draw Lewis dot
(electron transfer) diagrams if you like.
Use the charge of the polyatomic
anion with the charge of the cation
to balance the charges.
Write the formula using
subscripts to show how many
of each ion are needed to
balance the charges.
END