[charisse]

  Please help - all this acetate business is quite confusing!

As a rule for solubility of salts, all acetates are soluble. Yet when I see HC2H3O2, and I think I've spotted an acetate, I wearily find I am wrong. It's in fact a weak acid, and therefore insoluble. How do I know if what I'm looking at is a true acetate? Same story with NaC2H3O2, sodium acetate. Is this truly an acetate, and therefore soluble? Or is it another cleverly disguised acid, waiting to trap unsuspecting Chemistry novices?

Any advice would be heartily appreciated.

[Borek]

All acetates are soluble in general.

Acetic acid is not only soluble, but it is miscible - can be mixed with water in any proportions.

Perhaps you are mistaking solubility with dissociation - acetic acid, while miscible, is weak, therefore usually only partially dissociated.

[charisse]

So a compound can be soluble and also weak? But I thought solubility determined a compound's weakness or strength, i.e. whether or not it would dissociate. Weak electrolytes can be soluble?

[mike]

Acetic acid does not have to dissociate (ie loss a H+) in order to dissolve.

So yes acetic acid is soluble, and also a weak acid.