3/4 means three copies of 1/4.
Step 1: Let's Learn
Read it, or press Listen and follow the words.
Count the pieces
Take a whole cut into 4. Take 3 of those pieces. That is 3/4.
It is like counting anything
3 quarters, 3 apples, 3 tens. The unit changes, the counting does not.
Reading a fraction as a count
3/4 means three one-fourths. The bottom number names the size of the piece; the top number counts how many you have. Reading fractions this way — a count of a named unit — makes them behave like every other number you know.
Why same-bottom fractions add easily
1/4 + 2/4 is one fourth plus two fourths, which is three fourths. The pieces are the same size so you can just count them, exactly as 1 apple + 2 apples = 3 apples. The bottom number does not change because the piece size did not change.
The top can go past the bottom
Nothing stops you having 5 copies of 1/4. That is 5/4, which is more than one whole. Once a fraction is a count of pieces, counting past the whole is obviously allowed — a point that seems strange if you only ever think of fractions as parts of a single cake.
Step 2: Try It Yourself
Tap and try it out.
The whole is cut into 4 equal shares, called fourths.
0/4 shaded
Step 3: Watch an Example
One step at a time.
Watch Ana Count Fifths
Ana has a bar cut into 5 equal parts and shades 3.
- Step 1
She names one piece: 1/5.
Step 4: Your Turn
Practice makes it stick.
The Chocolate Bar
Problem 1 of 2
A bar has 8 equal pieces. You eat 5. What fraction did you eat?
eighths
Counting Copies
Problem 2 of 2
How many copies of 1/6 make 4/6?
Count the Pieces
1 of 3
How many copies of 1/4 make 3/4?
2 of 3
2 pieces out of 5 equal parts. What is the numerator?
3 of 3
2 pieces out of 5 equal parts. What is the denominator?
Step 5: Quick Check
Show what you know.
Question 1 of 2
How many copies of 1/8 make 5/8?
Question 2 of 2
6 equal parts, 4 shaded. What fraction is shaded?
sixths
What You Learned
- a/b means a copies of 1/b.
- The numerator counts the pieces you have.
- Counting fractions works like counting anything else.