Free printable roman numerals chart
Grades 3–5Seven letters, four rules, and every number up to 3,999. Print the chart for the wall, or use the converter below to turn any number into Roman numerals and back again — and to see how each one was put together.
Tap the chart to open it at full size
Convert either way
Type a number and you get the Roman numeral; type a Roman numeral and you get the number. The strip underneath breaks it into the pieces it was built from, biggest first, which is exactly how you would write it by hand.
Try 1994. It comes out as MCMXCIV, which looks impenetrable until the strip splits it into M for 1000, CM for 900, XC for 90 and IV for 4. Four chunks, each one straightforward, and the whole thing is just those chunks written in a row.
The two-letter chunks are the subtraction pairs, and they are where every mistake lives. CM is not C and M separately — it is a hundred taken away from a thousand. The note under the strip tells you which pairs are in play each time.
| Symbol | I | V | X | L | C | D | M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | 1 | 5 | 10 | 50 | 100 | 500 | 1,000 |
- 1I
- 2II
- 3III
- 4IV
- 5V
- 6VI
- 7VII
- 8VIII
- 9IX
- 10X
- 20XX
- 30XXX
- 40XL
- 50L
- 60LX
- 70LXX
- 80LXXX
- 90XC
- 100C
- 500D
- 1,000M
- In Roman numerals
- MCMXCIV
- As a number
- 1,994
Type a number or a Roman numeral — it converts either way. The strip above shows how it was built.
How to use this Roman numerals chart at home
Start with the three easy letters and stop there for a while. I, V and X cover everything up to 39, which is enough for clock faces, chapter numbers and most of what a child will actually meet. Adding L, C, D and M before those three are automatic just produces a longer list to forget.
Read them out in the room. A clock with a Roman face, a chapter heading, the date at the end of a film. Roman numerals are one of the few math topics where the real-world examples are genuinely everywhere once you start looking, and spotting them does more than a worksheet.
Then use the converter above backwards. Give them a numeral and have them work out the number before typing it in to check. Reading is easier than writing, and it builds the pattern recognition that writing needs.
The one rule that explains most of it
Write the biggest pieces first and add them up. That single instruction generates nearly every Roman numeral correctly. MCMXCIV is M then CM then XC then IV, in descending order, added together.
The exception is the subtraction pairs, and even they follow the rule if you treat each pair as a single piece rather than two letters. CM is not C followed by M — it is one chunk worth 900, sitting in its proper place in the descending order.
Children who learn it as a list of letters to arrange find it arbitrary and hard. Children who learn it as chunks in descending order find it mechanical, which is what it actually is.
Why the subtraction pairs exist at all
Without them, 4 would be IIII and 9 would be VIIII, and 1999 would be a very long string of letters indeed. The subtraction shortcut keeps numerals compact, which mattered when you were carving them into stone.
There are only six pairs and they follow a pattern: IV and IX from the ones, XL and XC from the tens, CD and CM from the hundreds. Each is the same shape one place value up, which makes them much easier to learn together than separately.
V, L and D are never used this way. There is no VL for 45 — it is XLV. The reason is that only the powers-of-ten symbols get subtracted, and V, L and D are the halfway markers. Worth stating as a rule, because children reliably invent VL if nobody says otherwise.
You may still see IIII on clock faces, incidentally. It is not a mistake, it is an old convention that predates the strict rule and looks better balanced against the VIII opposite it.
Where Roman numerals usually go wrong
Adding when the numeral subtracts. Reading IX as 11 rather than 9, because I plus X. Position is what decides: a smaller symbol before a larger one is taken away, after it is added.
Repeating a symbol four times. Writing IIII or XXXX. Three is the limit, and the fourth is what the subtraction pairs exist to avoid.
Inventing pairs that do not exist. VL for 45, IC for 99, IL for 49. Only I, X and C get subtracted, and only from the next two symbols up. 99 is XCIX, which children find outrageous the first time they see it.
Ordering the chunks wrongly. Writing XCM or similar by assembling the right pieces in the wrong sequence. Descending order, always, with each subtraction pair kept whole.
After the chart goes up
A chart explains the idea but gives a child nothing to do. These do the rest.
- number sense at Mathify Kids — every topic in this area, sorted by grade.
- comparing numbers worksheets — printable practice.
- skip counting worksheets — the next step once this is solid.
- addition facts worksheets — more practice in the same area.
Everything at this level: Grade 3 math · Grade 4 math · Grade 5 math
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Questions parents ask
What are the seven Roman numerals?
I is 1, V is 5, X is 10, L is 50, C is 100, D is 500 and M is 1,000. Every Roman number is built from just those seven letters. Most children learn I, V and X quickly and then stall on L, C, D and M, which have no obvious hook to hang on.
How do you write 4 and 9 in Roman numerals?
4 is IV and 9 is IX. Rather than writing four I's, a smaller symbol placed in front of a larger one means subtract it: IV is one before five, IX is one before ten. The same pattern gives XL for 40, XC for 90, CD for 400 and CM for 900.
What are the rules for writing Roman numerals?
Write the biggest values first and add them up. Never repeat a symbol more than three times in a row — which is why 4 is IV rather than IIII. Only I, X and C can be subtracted, and only from the next two values up. And V, L and D are never repeated or subtracted at all.
Why is there no zero in Roman numerals?
Because the system counts symbols rather than filling places. In our system the zero in 306 holds the tens column open, but Roman numerals have no columns to hold — CCCVI simply lists what is there. Zero as a number arrived in Europe much later, along with the digits we use now.
What is the largest Roman numeral?
In the standard system, 3,999 — written MMMCMXCIX. Since M cannot be repeated more than three times, there is no way to write 4,000 without extra notation. The Romans used a bar over a numeral to multiply it by a thousand, but that is rarely taught at this level.
Where do we still use Roman numerals?
Clock faces, book chapters, the Super Bowl, film copyright dates, monarchs and popes, and the outline numbering in formal documents. It is worth pointing a few out, because it answers the question children always ask about why they are learning this.
Is this Roman numerals chart free to print?
Yes. Open it full size and print as many copies as you need for home or a classroom, with no account and no watermark. Reselling it or re-hosting the file elsewhere is not allowed — link to this page instead.