This page makes free printable 2 digit minus 1 digit subtraction worksheets on demand: press the button and you get a new sheet of 20 problems with a matching answer key, ready for US Letter or A4 paper. The current sheet starts with problems like 52 − 3 and 43 − 6, and the answers (49 and 37) are printed on the key so marking takes about a minute.
‘New set of problems’ opens the generator in its own tab. There you can change the problem count and turn the answer key on or off. ‘Print or save as PDF’ opens the print dialog — choose Save as PDF in the printer list to keep the file. The sheet fits US Letter and A4, and the answer key prints on its own page.
Fluency here means the child can say why a column needed regrouping, not just that it did. Ask about the column that produced 59 and you will hear the difference immediately.
Every subtraction has an addition hiding inside it, and checking 43 − 6 by adding 37 back to the smaller number is the single most useful habit you can teach on this page.
Subtraction is where arithmetic confidence is usually won or lost. The written method itself is short, but it demands that the child hold a borrowed ten in their head while working on the next column — which is why 52 − 3 can take three times as long as an addition of the same size.
There are two ways to think about a subtraction such as 52 − 3: taking away, or finding the difference. Children who only know the first find 49 slowly whenever the two numbers are close together.
These 2 digit minus 1 digit subtraction worksheets are commonly aligned with the subtraction strand of most US state standards for this grade, and the skill appears in most curricula somewhere around this point.
| # | Problem | Answer | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 52 − 3 = | 49 | Watch for: forgetting to reduce the column that was borrowed from |
| 2 | 43 − 6 = | 37 | Check: checking by re-subtracting |
| 3 | 68 − 9 = | 59 | Look at: subtracting the smaller digit from the larger one |
| 4 | 61 − 8 = | 53 | Ask about: borrowing across a zero |
| 5 | 46 − 8 = | 38 | Watch for: counting back one at a time |
| 6 | 32 − 2 = | 30 | Check: reading the minus sign as a plus |
Take the first problem on the sheet as it stands, 52 − 3. Work 52 − 3 out on paper rather than in your head the first few times, say each step aloud, and check the result against 49 on the key before moving on.
Work 61 − 8 out loud as a demonstration. It gives 53. Children who hear 61 − 8 reasoned through once at the start of a session make noticeably fewer errors in the ten minutes that follow.
Answers appear next to their question numbers, so a wrong item like 43 − 6 can be found in the key in a second and re-worked while it is still fresh.
Because the numbers are random, there is no shared answer list to look up: the key printed behind your sheet is the only one that fits it, and it shows 49 for 52 − 3.
Portrait orientation is what the sheet is designed for. Landscape works but wastes about a third of the paper, so leave the orientation alone unless you have a reason.
To save these 2 digit minus 1 digit subtraction worksheets instead of printing them, choose 'Save as PDF' in the printer list. You get the worksheet and the answer key as a single PDF, on Letter or A4 depending on your printer settings.
One sheet of 2 digit minus 1 digit subtraction worksheets a day for two weeks will tell you more about where a child working at this level actually stands than any single long assessment.
Free printable math worksheets from a working math academy director in Korea. Problems come from our own code, not from a published workbook. Every sheet prints on US Letter or A4 with its answer key. All worksheets · Worksheet generator · Korean site
Last updated: 2026-09-13