A chemical element, symbol Na — a soft, silver-white metal. On its own it is dangerous and unstable; drop pure sodium into water and it catches fire. You almost never see it alone.

A chemical element, symbol Na —一種化學元素，符號是Na a soft, silver-white metal是一種柔軟、銀白色的金屬。On its own it is dangerous and unstable;它單獨存在時很危險，也不穩定 drop pure sodium into water and it catches fire把純鈉丟進水裡會著火。You almost never see it alone你幾乎不會看到它單獨存在。

In real life sodium comes joined to something else, and the joining you meet every day is table salt: sodium chloride. Because of that, 'sodium' in ordinary speech usually means the salt part of food. Food labels say 'sodium 480mg'; a doctor says 'cut down on sodium', meaning eat less salty food.

In real life sodium comes joined to something else,在現實生活中，鈉都是跟別的東西結合在一起的 and the joining you meet every day is table salt:而你每天遇到的那種結合就是食鹽 sodium chloride也就是sodium chloride（氯化鈉）。Because of that, 'sodium' in ordinary speech usually means the salt part of food正因如此，日常說話裡的『sodium』通常指的是食物裡的鹽分。Food labels say 'sodium 480mg';食品標示會寫『sodium 480mg』（鈉480毫克） a doctor says 'cut down on sodium', meaning eat less salty food醫生說『cut down on sodium』，意思是少吃鹹的東西。

You will also meet it in fixed names: sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), sodium lamps (the orange street lights), sodium hydroxide. Note the odd pair — the element is 'sodium' but the symbol is Na, from the Latin word 'natrium'; the two do not match, and that is normal in chemistry.

You will also meet it in fixed names:你也會在固定的名稱裡遇到它 sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), sodium lamps (the orange street lights), sodium hydroxide像sodium bicarbonate（小蘇打）、sodium lamps（橘黃色的路燈）、sodium hydroxide（氫氧化鈉）。Note the odd pair —要注意一組奇怪的搭配 the element is 'sodium' but the symbol is Na,元素名字是『sodium』，但符號卻是Na from the Latin word 'natrium';這是來自拉丁文『natrium』 the two do not match,兩者對不太起來 and that is normal in chemistry這在化學裡很正常。