Subtract mixed fractions with borrowing
for 4th grade

Subtract mixed numbers with borrowing

A mixed number has a whole number part and a fraction part. Sometimes when you want to subtract 2 mixed numbers, you will find that the fraction part of the second number is greater than that of the first. For instance, in the sum 2⅓ - 1⅔ the fraction part of the second number is greater than the fraction part of the first number.

So one way to solve such a sum is to borrow 1 from the first whole number (which is reduced by 1) and add it to the fraction part so that the fraction part of the first number becomes greater than the fraction part of the second number. In our example, 2⅓ - 1⅔ becomes:

Now you can subract the fraction part first, and then the whole numbers to arrive at the solution.

A different way to think about this sum (and any similar sum where the denominators of the fraction parts are the same) is to count up from the second number to the first. So in our example above, counting up from one and two thirds to two gives us one third, and then we need another third to get to the first number two and a third, so the difference between the 2 numbers is two thirds.