[taiwodare]

I want a better understanding and clarification on naming compounds such as carbon trioxosulphate (v), trioxocarbonate (iv) etc. are named. How do the roman numeral in brackets gotten? Why do inorganic compounds have two different ways of naming them? Thanks in advance.

[chenbeier]

The roman letter is the oxidation number of the central atom.

Sodiumcarbonate Na₂CO₃ is called Disodiumtrioxocarbonate (IV)

[Vidya]

Here Di ,tri are used to indicate numbers of atoms .