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Roman numerals are number signs — Classical languages, 4–6 years

Roman people used letters as number signs. We can still spot them on clocks, buildings and games.

Letters can stand for numbers

In Roman numerals, I means one and V means five. The signs can join together: II is two, and VI is six. They are not ordinary letters in this game; they are number marks.

Why use these signs?

Long ago, people needed to mark amounts on stones, lists and buildings, but the modern digits 0 to 9 were not yet common in Europe. Roman numerals gave them a short way to show a number, even without writing its whole name.

Read VI

Look at VI. V is five, and I is one. Put them together because the smaller sign comes after the larger one: 5 + 1 = 6. So VI means six. You could write the sixth page of a book as page VI.

Do not read every letter separately

A child may see IV and say “one, five”, because I and V are separate letters when we read words. That is a sensible guess. In Roman numerals, a smaller sign before a larger one means take away: 5 − 1 = 4, so IV is four.

Where do we still see them?

Roman numerals still label clock faces, kings and queens with the same name, and parts of books. A clock might show XII at the top, and a ruler called Henry VIII has the numeral VIII after his name. They are useful signs, not the best way to do every calculation.

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