Grade 4 Multi-Digit Subtraction (Standard Algorithm)
Four-digit subtraction with the standard algorithm in grade 4, borrowing through several columns at once. Sixteen problems, printable with answers.
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Three different problem sets — same skill, same layout, fresh numbers.
Preview — Set A
Subtract using the standard algorithm. Line up the place values and borrow where needed.
- 1.4804−3663
- 2.7498−5096
- 3.7668−3333
- 4.9156−2150
- 5.4004−3445
- 6.3382−1268
- 7.5402−3749
- 8.6367−3019
- 9.4616−2897
- 10.4921−3227
- 11.5119−4903
- 12.8502−4530
- 13.4277−2342
- 14.9085−3120
- 15.8015−4015
- 16.9091−7702
What this worksheet covers
This is a 16-problem vertical format for grade 4 subtraction, printed in black and white with the key on page two. Twelve of the sixteen column problems need regrouping and the rest do not, so the two cases are mixed rather than blocked and the numbers run as high as 9,156. Problems 6 and 11, for instance, are "3382 − 1268" and "5119 − 4903". It is written against Common Core 4.NBT.4 — Number & Operations in Base Ten, grade 4.
Skills practiced
The grade 4 subtraction sequence covers the standard algorithm on four- and five-digit numbers; this page sits inside it. What a student is asked to do here is grade 4 Multi-Digit Subtraction (Standard Algorithm). Concretely, the sheet tests whether a student can carry or borrow across place-value columns without losing a digit.
About the vertical format format
Vertical format stacks the two operands over a rule with space above for regrouped digits; the 16 problems, problem 6, "3382 − 1268" among them, sit four to a row. Column layout is the format regrouping was designed for; the trade has somewhere to be written.
Set A, Set B and Set C
Set A is the original sheet; Sets B and C redraw each problem with the same shape and recomputed answers. Where Set A's problem 9 is "4616 − 2897", Set B's is "7180 − 4726".
How to use this worksheet
Work the sixteen problems straight through, then check against the key together rather than handing it back marked; asking a grade 4 student to find their own subtraction error teaches more than seeing it circled. Use the key as a check, not as a grade; none of the sixteen problems needs a score attached to be useful.
One mistake to watch for
Borrowing across a zero stalls: 603 − 127 is left half done or answered 586 instead of 476. On this grade 4 vertical format, problem 7 ("5402 − 3749") is the kind of item where it shows.
There is nothing in the tens column to borrow from, and the two-step regroup has not been rehearsed.
Rewrite 603 as 5 hundreds, 9 tens and 13 ones before subtracting anything; the two-step trade is the whole skill here.
Other grade 4 subtraction formats
The same skill in the other formats available at this grade.
- Drill — Grade 4 Subtraction Drill, 30 problems
- Timed Drill — Grade 4 Subtraction Timed Drill, 72 problems
- Missing Number — Grade 4 Subtraction Missing Number, 24 problems
- Mixed Review — Grade 4 Subtraction Mixed Review, 30 problems
- Word Problems — Grade 4 Subtraction Word Problems, 10 problems
A step either side
The same format one grade down and one grade up — the easier sheet is often the faster fix when this one is not landing.
- Grade 3 Three-Digit Subtraction with Regrouping — grade 3, 20 problems
Vertical Format sheets in other grade 4 topics
Print as many copies of this grade 4 subtraction vertical format as you need; Sets A, B and C and their keys are six separate PDFs, all free.