Chemestry

Illustration: David Revoy

Here is some basic chemestry vocabulary. I've come across some of these words in the past, so I hope they'll be useful to you to!

Elements

素 is a common kanji in element names. According to RTK, this is elementary. Usually, it comes with another kanji before, and you can remember the meaning by thinking elemental brick. By the way, a chemical element is 元素 (). Here are all the elements that have a kanji writing. Others are written in kana and come from English or Latin.

H

水素

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the elemental brick of water.

C

炭素

Carbon

Carbon is the elemental brick of charcoal.

N

窒素

Nitrogen

O

酸素

Oxygen

Oxygen is the elemental brick of acid/rust.

F

フッ素

Fluorine

Si

ケイ素

Silicon

P

Phosphorus

Note that it's usually written in kana only.

S

硫黄

Sulfur

硫 is for sulfur and is usually used alone in compounds. Pronounce it りゅう in compounds. 黄 is yellow, the color of sulfur.

Cl

塩素

Chlorine

Chlorine is the elemental brick of salt (true, with sodium, ナトリウム (Na)).

Fe

Iron

Cu

Copper

Zn

亜鉛

Zinc

As

砒素

Arsenic

砒 is usually used alone in compounds.

Br

臭素

しゅ

Bromine

Bromine is the element that stinks (really).

Ag

Silver

Sn

Tin

Usually written in kana.

I

ヨウ素

Iodine

Pt

白金

Platinum

The white gold, often written プラチナ.

Au

Gold

Gold is more precious than silver, don't mix it with dakuten like you did with silver

Hg

水銀

Mercury

The water silver. In English, it used to be called quicksilver, so makes sense.

Pb

Lead