Question

compounds how can you tell if a substance is an element or a compound? finish this sentence: “compounds have capital letter(s) in their chemical symbol.”

Explanation:

Elements are pure substances with a single - type of atom and have a single - letter or two - letter chemical symbol starting with a capital. Compounds are made up of two or more different elements chemically combined and their chemical formulas may have multiple capital letters depending on the elements present.

Answer:

Compounds have two or more capital letters in their chemical symbol(s) (because they are made of multiple elements with their own symbols which may start with capitals), while elements usually have one or two - letter symbols with the first letter capitalized.