DecimalsHundredths
Name: Date:
Subtract the decimals.
117.90−14.91
218.84−10.84
314.85−2.47
410.78−6.30
56.69−5.47
617.58−12.10
716.61−12.46
812.79−10.46
912.36−1.13
1010.07−6.17
Subtracting decimals worksheets
Subtracting decimals is column subtraction with the points lined up and the gaps filled in. These free printable worksheets stack every question already aligned, with borrowing across the decimal point where it comes up.
Kid stuck on one? You don’t just get the sheet.
Subtracting decimals
The answer key prints on a separate page.
What's on this sheet
17.9 − 14.91 is the shape that catches people out. The top number has nothing in the hundredths column, so a zero goes in — 17.90 — and now there is a borrow to make. A child who leaves the space blank has an empty column to subtract from and usually invents an answer for it.
Why this sheet works
Borrowing works exactly as it does with whole numbers, and it is worth saying so. The point does not stop a borrow or change how one works; it only marks where the whole numbers end. Children who treat the two sides of the point as separate sums get the right digits in the wrong places.
How this one works
One question from this sheet, worked through a step at a time.
17.90 − 14.91
61810 17.90 14.91 2.99
- 17.90 − 14.91. Line the POINTS up under each other — not the right-hand ends. Right-aligning is what turns 12.5 + 3.75 into a tidy-looking wrong answer.
- 0 is too small to take 1 from, so a ten comes across from the left: this column now holds 10. 10 − 1 = 9.
- 9 is too small to take 9 from, so a ten comes across from the left: this column now holds 18. 18 − 9 = 9.
- This column gave a ten to the right, so it is now 6, not 7. 6 − 4 = 2.
- 1 take away 1 leaves nothing — and a nothing at the front is not written, so the answer starts one place along.
- The point in the answer comes straight down from the ones above it — it was never moved, only lined up. 17.90 − 14.91 = 2.99.