does covalent bonding involve transferring electrons or sharing electrons?

Covalent bonding involves sharing electrons, not transferring them.

Quick Scoop

• In a covalent bond, atoms share one or more pairs of electrons between them.

• This sharing usually happens between nonmetal atoms so each can fill its outer (valence) shell and become more stable.

• Transferring electrons (one atom loses, another gains) is characteristic of ionic bonding, not covalent bonding.

How to picture it

• Think of two atoms “holding onto” the same pair of electrons, like two people sharing a rope between them; neither completely gives it up.

• In some covalent bonds the electrons are shared equally (nonpolar), in others unequally (polar), but they are still shared rather than transferred.

Super short answer

• Does covalent bonding involve transferring electrons or sharing electrons?
  → Sharing electrons.

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