What Should One Know About the Croatian Chemical Nomenclature?

An overview of the most common mistakes and misconceptions concerning Croatian chemical nomenclature is presented. The difference between nomenclature and terminology is clarified. The chemical elements selenium, tellurium, titanium and uranium should not be named (in Croatian) by antiquated names selen, telur, titan and uran. Possessive adjectives derived from the names of chemical elements (e.g. ugljikov, aluminijev, platinin) should be distinguished from material adjectives derived from the names of their elementary substances (e.g. ugljicni, aluminijski, platinski). When writing chemical names, one should take care of the rules of the use of hyphens and spaces, as well as of the correct use of italic font. In Croatian, prefixes denoting halogen substituents in the substitution nomenclature differ from those denoting halogen ligands in the coordination nomenclature.