What is subtraction?
Subtraction is minusing or taking away one number from another.
Sometimes it's called finding the difference.
Example 1
Let's practise taking one number away from another.
There are four daisies in a field. The cow eats two. How many are left?
You can count backwards to help you find the answer.
There are two daisies left. Four daisies take away two is two.
As a calculation this is
4 - 2 = 2
Example 2
There are six carrots in the field. The rabbit eats four. How many are left?
There are two carrots left.
The subtraction is six take away four is two.
As a number sentence this is:
6 - 4 = 2
Example 3
There are eight pieces of cheese. The mouse eats 6 pieces. How many will be left?
There are two pieces of cheese left.
We can say eight take away six is two or eight minus two is six.
As a number sentence this is:
8 - 6 = 2
Quiz
Try and solve some more subtractions in this quiz!
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More on Adding and subtracting
Find out more by working through a topic
- count7 of 14
- count8 of 14
- count9 of 14
- count10 of 14
