Inorganic nomenclature game: Stock, prefixes and oxoacids
A chemistry game for practising inorganic nomenclature without endless worksheets. A compound’s name appears and you pick its formula, or the formula appears and you pick its name. On easy there are oxides, metal hydrides and binary salts, and you are also asked what type each compound is; on medium hydroxides and Stock nomenclature come in (iron(III) oxide); on hard, prefix names (diiron trioxide, dinitrogen pentaoxide) and the most common oxoacids with their traditional names. When you answer, the valency swap that explains the formula appears.
Chemistry · Secondary, Sixth Form
Writing Fe₂O₃ from “iron(III) oxide” means swapping the valencies: iron’s 3 drops to the oxygen and oxygen’s 2 drops to the iron. Every correction draws that swap, and when you need to simplify (CaO, not Ca₂O₂) it explains it.
The wrong formulas are the ones students actually write: the metal’s other valency, the subscripts swapped, unsimplified or a hydroxide without brackets (FeOH₃). In names, the unnecessary Roman numeral on a single-valency metal or the subscript read as a valency.
From formula to name it always says which nomenclature is wanted, and prefix questions only use compounds where there is no debate: no “calcium monoxide” versus “calcium oxide” and no chlorine oxides, which since 2005 are named two ways depending on the textbook.
"Out comes “iron(III) sulfide”. Iron has valency 3 and sulfur, in sulfides, has 2. Swap them: Fe₂S₃. It cannot be simplified, so that is the formula. The wrong options can include FeS (iron’s valency 2), Fe₃S₂ (the numbers swapped) or Fe₃S₃."
Prefer to learn without screens? Try this analogue version:
Write formulas on one half of some cards and names on the other, mixed up: Fe₂O₃ | sodium chloride, NaCl | calcium hydroxide…
Deal the cards and lay them down matching each name to its formula.
If you cannot play, draw a card; whoever runs out first wins.
At the end, go over together the ones that were hardest and why.
If you like Name the Compound, these activities work similar skills:
Multiple choice on reading a formula, valencies and oxidation numbers, with an explanation for each answer.
Another chemistry game: balance chemical equations with coefficients and check on the scales that no atom is missing or left over.
For revising where each element is in the periodic table, which gives clues to its valencies.
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