Do the electronegativity of atoms affect the molecular geometry of molecules?

I would like to know whether the electronegativity of atoms will affect the molecular geometry of a molecule.


For example, the molecule $\ce{CHFCl2}$. Originally I thought that as fluorine was the most electronegative, it would have a stronger partial negative charge, so the shape of the molecule would not be tetrahedral. I also thought that as carbon has a higher electronegativity, there would be a partial positive charge at the carbon atom. Can anyone explain whether the electronegativity of atoms in a molecule can affect the shape of the molecule? In $\ce{CHFCl2}$ why can $\ce{CHFCl2}$ even have a tetrahedral shape although I think the charges cannot cancel out?




Under special circumstances, yes. For example, the NIST Web Book entry for tris(trifluoromethyl)amine (not the preferred IUPAC name, written here in an acceptable name for the sake of intuitivity) clearly gives a trigonal planar coordination geometry at nitrogen, while e.g. the valence isoelectronic trimethylamine has the VSEPR-expected (3BD1LP) triangular pyramidal geometry at nitrogen- this is due to negative hyperconjugation from the nitrogen lone pair to the C-F antibonding orbital, which is promoted by the so high electronegativity of fluorine. [This effect is quite general, and is called the anomeric effect(Warning: PDF auto-download)](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/126810/1/AAM.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiZ2u61q_34AhWPhVYBHazPAo0QFnoECBQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0l3Y0hEC0TCYJ25HK_OBot)


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