Subtraction

📖 In short

Subtraction means taking some things away from a bigger group to find out how many are left. If you have 8 oranges and eat 3, how many are left? 8 - 3 = 5 oranges. Subtraction is the opposite of addition.

🤩 Did you know?

If you take zero away from a number it stays the same: 7 - 0 = 7.
If you take a number away from itself the answer is zero: 5 - 5 = 0.
In subtraction order matters: 8 - 3 isn't the same as 3 - 8.
You can subtract by counting backwards on a number line.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 The minus sign

We write the sign “-” between the two numbers and read 8 - 3 as eight minus three equals five. The answer is called the remainder or the difference.

🔍 What's the difference?

We also use subtraction to find the difference between two numbers: if you're 9 and your brother is 6, the difference is 9 - 6 = 3 years.

💡 How many more do I need?

If Hassan needs 12 marbles and has only 5, how many more does he need? We subtract 12 - 5 = 7 marbles.

🎯 Check with addition

You can check a subtraction answer with addition: if 8 - 3 = 5, then 5 + 3 must equal 8. And it does!

📸 More pictures

🧩 Test yourself

1 What is 8 - 3?

2 What is 5 - 5?

3 What is the opposite of subtraction?

4 Which picture shows “Subtraction”?