Tens and Ones: Place Value to 99

A ten is ten ones

Snap $10$ cubes together into one stick. Now you have one ten.

The stick is still $10$ cubes. It is only bundled, so it is faster to count.

Tens and ones in a number

A two-digit number tells how many tens and how many ones.

There are $3$ tens and $4$ ones. That is $34$.

Tens	Ones	Number
$3$	$4$	$34$
$5$	$2$	$52$
$1$	$6$	$16$
$7$	$0$	$70$

The left digit tells the tens. The right digit tells the ones.

The teen numbers fit this too. $16$ is $1$ ten and $6$ ones. And $10$, $20$, $30$ up to $90$ are tens with $0$ ones: $70$ is $7$ tens.

Why the place of a digit matters

$34$ and $43$ use the same two digits. But they are not the same amount.

$34$ is $3$ tens and $4$ ones. $43$ is $4$ tens and $3$ ones. A ten is worth ten ones, so the digit in the tens place counts for much more.

Where a digit sits tells what it counts: tens on the left, ones on the right.

Compare two-digit numbers

To see which number is bigger, look at the tens first.

• More tens means a bigger number.
• If the tens are the same, look at the ones.

We write the answer with a symbol:

Symbol	Say it
$>$	is greater than
$<$	is less than
$=$	is equal to

The open side of $>$ or $<$ faces the bigger number. The point faces the smaller one.

Worked examples

Common mistakes

Practice problems