ate vs. ite

[Ella_hou]

when doing achieve hw problem number 3, we have to translate the polyatomic names into formulas. how would you determine the subscript for "ate" in phosphate and nitrate ions as well as nitrite and phosphite?

[Aneesha_Nema_3C]

-ate and -ite are both used for polyatomic ions with oxygen. I believe that -ate refers to the molecule containing the cation with a higher oxidation state, or basically the molecule with more oxygen atoms. I've interpreted this as -ate ions being the “full” version of the anion (nitrate has 3 oxygens), and the -ite ions would have one less oxygen than the "full" verison (nitrite has 2 oxygens). I hope this is right and that it makes sense, but this is how I see the difference between the two suffixes.

[Mason_Hoppe_1A]

According to the textbook, you are right. The -ate variant of an atom's ionic compound is the one containing more oxygen atoms. My question is, how do you know how many oxygen atoms there are when only given the name? Does -ate always mean three oxygen atoms? Is this something that has to be memorized?

[Sabira Mohammed 3I]

Hey,

I think generally it's

hypo___ite for 1 oxygen atom
___ite for 2 oxygen atoms
___ate for 3 oxygen atoms
per___ate for 4 oxygen atoms

but this won't always be the case (for example with sulfite is 3 oxygen atoms and sulfate is 4) so it might be better to just memorize common polyatomic ions.

[Benjamin Nguyen 1J]

Ions ending in "ite" have one less oxygen than the ion ending in "ate" (but their charges are still the same). The way I remember them is just by memorizing all the polyatomic ions ending in "ate" and you could just find the "ite" version taking away one O.