Maths Library

Roman Numerals: Year 4 maths

Pupils learn to interpret, construct, and convert Roman numerals up to 1000. Exercises reinforce additive and subtractive notation principles through historical dates, clocks, and ordinal contexts.

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What this covers

Roman Numerals is taught in Year 4 (age 8 to 9, KS2) as a topic to introduce. It sits in the Number strand.

Worked example

Write 44 in Roman numerals.

  1. Partition the number into tens and units: 40 and 4
  2. Represent 40 using subtractive notation: XL
  3. Represent 4 using subtractive notation: IV
  4. Combine the parts: XLIV

Answer: XLIV

Difficulty scale

The sheet generator offers five difficulty settings for this topic.

  1. Read and write basic symbols I, V, X up to 20
  2. Numerals up to 100 incorporating L and C with additive principles
  3. Subtractive notation cases such as IV, IX, XL, and XC up to 100
  4. Numerals up to 1000 using D and M (including historical years)
  5. Addition and subtraction arithmetic expressed directly in Roman numerals

Common mistakes

  • Repeating a symbol more than three times instead of using subtractive notation (e.g. IIII instead of IV)
  • Subtracting letters across improper place-value boundaries (e.g. writing IL for 49 instead of XLIX)

Curriculum links

Indicative matches to National Curriculum for England. Check wording and codes against the official document.

  • Read Roman numerals to 100 (I to C) and recognise how historical number systems developed.

Sample sheet and answers

Six questions at the level's usual difficulty. Open the editor to change, add or regenerate any of them.

Roman Numerals

Year 4 maths

Qs
6
Marks
6
NameDateScore / 6
1.
Write 9 in Roman numerals.
[1]
2.
Write IV as a number.
[1]
3.
Write 9 in Roman numerals.
[1]
4.
Write 10 in Roman numerals.
[1]
5.
Write IX as a number.
[1]
6.
Write 5 in Roman numerals.
[1]

Answer key

  1. IXBuild 9 from the largest symbols down; 9 = IX
  2. 4Add the symbols, subtracting where a smaller one comes first; IV = 4
  3. IXBuild 9 from the largest symbols down; 9 = IX
  4. XBuild 10 from the largest symbols down; 10 = X
  5. 9Add the symbols, subtracting where a smaller one comes first; IX = 9
  6. VBuild 5 from the largest symbols down; 5 = V