Roman Numerals Worksheets Generator

Both directions

Write 47 in Roman numerals. Or convert XLVII back to a number. Or mixed, which alternates the two.

Twenty questions by default, with a ceiling of 100. Raise the ceiling and the numerals grow longer and considerably more interesting to write out.

The seven letters

I is 1, V is 5, X is 10, L is 50, C is 100, D is 500, M is 1000. That is the entire alphabet, and there is nothing else to learn — every Roman numeral ever written is those seven letters arranged.

The system has no zero and no place value, which is why arithmetic in it is close to impossible and why Europe adopted Arabic numerals with some relief.

Subtractive notation is the whole difficulty

A smaller letter before a larger one means subtract. IV is 4, not 6. IX is 9. XL is 40, CD is 400.

Six subtractive pairs are allowed and no others: IV, IX, XL, XC, CD, CM. This is why 99 is XCIX and not IC, which is the mistake nearly every learner makes and which reads perfectly logically right up until you check the rule. Only I, X and C are ever subtracted, and only ever from the next two values up.

Reading versus writing

Converting to Arabic is the easier direction. Read left to right, add as you go, and subtract whenever a letter is followed by a bigger one.

Writing is harder because it requires working down from the largest value. For 1994: M leaves 994, CM leaves 94, XC leaves 4, IV finishes it. MCMXCIV. A pupil who tries to build it from the small end will produce something unreadable, so teach the top-down order explicitly.

Setting the ceiling

Up to 20 for a first lesson — enough to meet IV and IX and nothing more. Up to 100 introduces L, XL and XC, which is where the real work is. Up to 1000 brings in C, D and M.

Beyond 3999 the classical system runs out of letters, which is the practical ceiling and worth mentioning to a class as a genuine limitation rather than an arbitrary rule.

Where children meet them

Clock faces, book chapters, film copyright dates. The names of monarchs and popes, the Super Bowl, the foundation stones of buildings. It is a small piece of general knowledge with an unusually high chance of turning up in a museum, and children enjoy being able to read something adults around them cannot.

Curriculum-wise: usually ages eight to eleven, with the larger numbers left until the end of primary.