Addition

Now put the two groups together into one group of 8 apples. You're adding when you put two or more groups together to find out how many there are altogether.

📖 In short

Addition is a way of putting things together to find out how many there are altogether. If you have 5 apples and your mother gives you 3 more, how many apples do you have now? 5 + 3 = 8 apples. Addition is the first operation we learn in arithmetic.

🤩 Did you know?

You can add on your fingers when you start learning addition.
The abacus is an old tool for adding with beads.
The numbers from 1 to 10 add up to 55.
Addition is the opposite of subtraction.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 The plus sign

We write the sign “+” between the two numbers we're adding, and “=” before the answer. We say: five plus three equals eight. The answer is called the sum or total.

🔍 We add things that are alike

We add apples to apples, and pencils to pencils. We don't say five apples and three pencils make eight apples!

💡 Order doesn't matter

In addition the order of the numbers doesn't matter: 3 + 5 = 8, and 5 + 3 = 8 too. And if you add zero to a number it stays the same: 7 + 0 = 7.

🎯 Adding big numbers

To add 25 and 22, first add the ones, 5 + 2 = 7, then the tens, 2 + 2 = 4, so the sum is 47. If the ones add up to more than 9, we carry one over to the tens.

📸 More pictures

🧩 Test yourself

1 What is 5 + 3?

2 What is 7 + 0?

3 What is the opposite of addition?

4 Which picture shows “Addition”?