- Every rod is one place: ones, tens, hundreds. A top bead is 5, each bottom bead is 1.
- Beads pushed to the middle bar are counted. Beads away from it are zero.
- When you run out of beads, use small friends (pairs that make 5) or big friends (pairs that make 10).
Step 1: Meet your abacus
Which abacus are we using? This guide uses a Japanese-style soroban, with one upper bead worth 5 and four lower beads worth 1 on each rod. Other abacus designs, including the Chinese suanpan and classroom counting frames, may look different, but the examples below use the soroban layout.
Hold the abacus flat, with the single beads at the top. The bar across the middle is the beam. Above it, each rod has one heaven bead worth 5. Below it, four earth beads worth 1 each.
To clear the abacus, push every top bead up and every bottom bead down, away from the beam. Now it shows zero, ready to start.
Step 2: Show the numbers 0 to 9
Use the rod on the far right, the ones rod. Push bottom beads up for 1 to 4. For 5, bring the top bead down. For 6 to 9, use the top bead and add bottom beads.
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Step 3: Bigger numbers
Each rod to the left is worth ten times more: ones, then tens, then hundreds. To show 384, put 3 on the hundreds rod, 8 on the tens rod and 4 on the ones rod.
Step 4: Adding, the easy way
If there are enough beads, just push them in. For 2 + 1, start with 2, then push up one more bottom bead.
Step 5: Small friends (pairs that make 5)
What about 3 + 4? There is only one bottom bead left, not four. Instead, use a small friend: the partner of 4 to make 5 is 1. So adding 4 is the same as adding 5, then taking away 1.
Step 6: Big friends (pairs that make 10)
Now try 6 + 7. The ones rod can’t hold 13, so we use a big friend: the partner of 7 to make 10 is 3. So adding 7 is the same as taking away 3, then adding 10. Take 3 away on the ones rod, then add 1 on the tens rod.
Step 7: Subtracting on an abacus
Subtracting uses the same friends in reverse. For 13 − 5: there aren’t 5 to take from the ones rod, so take away 10 and give back 5. Take 1 from the tens rod, then bring down the top bead on the ones rod. The answer is 8.
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Step 8: From beads to brain
After weeks of practice, many children start to picture the abacus in their head and move imaginary beads. This is called mental abacus, or anzan. It is one of the routes to fast mental maths. Read abacus vs mental maths to see how the two connect.
Tips for parents
- Practise for 10 minutes a day, little and often. Once your child is comfortable with the basics, they can try a timed round in the Practice Arena to work on accuracy and speed.
- Say the moves out loud: “plus five, minus one”.
- Learn the friend pairs first; they unlock everything else.
- Go for accuracy before speed.