Question

How do you write the formulas and the names of compounds with polyatomic ions?

Answer 1

This is a very broad question. However, the hardest part about this is remembering the characteristic polyatomic oxyanions in order to apply the rules:
Characteristic: -ate suffix
Characteristic - 1: -ite suffix
Characteristic + 1: per- prefix, -ate suffix
Characteristic - 2: hypo- prefix, -ite suffix

Explanation:

For instance:

Some characteristic polyatomic oxyanions:
`ClO_3^-`, `NO_3^-`, `PO_4^3-`, etc.

So if I told you to write the formula for hypochlorite what would you write? (Hint: the first oxyanion is named chlorate)