Snap Language

What Are Fractions?

You get a fraction by dividing something into smaller parts. If you divide a dollar into four parts, you have 1 dollar divided by 4 or ¼.

Reading Fractions

The top number is a fraction is called the numerator. The bottom number is the denominator.

To read a fraction,

• Read the numerator as a cardinal number. That is how many of the parts you have.
• Then read the denominator as an ordinal number. If you have more than one part, the ordinal number is plural.

See these examples:

Some fractions have special names:

You often see fractions in recipes such as “1/2 tablespoon water” or “2/3 cup milk,” which you read as “half a tablespoon of water” and “two-thirds of a cup of milk.”

You also see fractions in technical writing. For example, you may see “1/4-inch nails” or “a 3/16-inch diameter,” but you read, “quarter-inch nails" and “a three-sixteenths inch diameter."

In other types of writing, you usually spell out the fraction. For example, you will almost always see “one-quarter of the population” or “two-thirds of the students.”

Decimals also represent fractions. For example, 1/4 (a quarter) is one divided by four. That gives you 0.25 (or .25), which is another way to express the fraction.

Reading Fractions

Reading decimals is very simple. You just read the numbers as cardinal numbers. You say “point” for the period separating the whole number from the decimal.

For decimals less than 1, you can write the zero or leave it out (0.3 = .3).

Examples

Note. In all the examples, you can say “zero” or “oh.”

π is pronounced /ˈpaɪ/.

It is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle. Its decimal goes on forever.

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