Write two characteristics that can help us identify a chemical substance as a salt.

A salt is any ionic compound. Some salts are very soluble, like NaCl. Others are very insoluble, like AgCl. Either way, typically, you can identify the salt as a combination of a cation and an anion in the right ratio to cancel the charges. The two examples I just gave you have a metal as the cation and a non-metal as an anion. This is called a binary salt. It is, however possible to have a salt that has no metals in it at all.