HCl -> H+ + Cl-

Question

In this scenario would the HCl be a strong acid and the Cl- the base? And do you only use the word conjugate bases when dealing with weak acids? Thanks.

Answer 1

Cl^- is a base, yes.
HCl is a strong acid because it ionizes 100%. We often omit the water from strong and weak acid ionizations; technically we should include water in those reactions.
If you write the equation as
HCl + H2O ==> H3O^+ + Cl^-
Then HCl is an acid and Cl^- is the conjugate base; H2O is the base and H3O^+ is the conjugate acid. It makes it a little harder to identify acids and bases if the H2O is omitted from the equation. There is no reason to suggest that this theory is useful only for weak acids.

Answer 2

Thanks DrBob!