system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why adding sugar to the water make it more viscous than adding salt?
gpt
Salt and sugar might look very similar and both dissolve in water, but they are chemically VERY different. Salt is sodium chloride, it  is made up of one sodium atom and one chlorine atom.  For salt to be made, the sodium atom must lose an electron and become a sodium ion and  the chlorine atom must add the sodium’s electron and become a chloride ion.  The sodium ion is then attracted to the chloride ion and a bondis formed from the attraction between a positive and negative ion.  This is called an **ionic bond.** 

If one dissolves salt in water, the ionic bond breaks and the ions let go of each other, so the molecule does not stay intact in the process.

Sugar on the other hand consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen forming large molecules with **covalent bonds**.  The atoms in sugar do not form ions; instead, they share their electrons. When sugar is dissolved in water, the bonds stay intact and thus are the molecules. Because whole molecules remain in the solution, it becomes viscous and sirupy.