Associative, Distributive and Commutative Properties

All together on 1 page!

To learn more about any of the properties below, visit that property's individual page.

Distributive Property	Associative Property
Commutative Property

Properies and Operations

Let's look at how (and if) these properties work with addition, multiplication, subtraction and division

Addition

Property	Example with Addition.
Distributive Property
Associative
Commutative

Summary: All 3 of these properties apply to addition

Multipliction

Property	Example with Multiplication.
Distributive Property	The distributive propert is an applicaiton of multiplication (so there is nothing to show here)
Associative
Commutative

Summary: All 3 of these properties apply to multiplication

Subtraction

Property	Example with Subtraction.
Distributive Property
Associative
Commutative

Summary: The distributive property is the only one that applies to subtraction.

Division

Property	Example with Subtraction.
Distributive Property
Associative
Commutative

Summary: The distributive property is the only one that applies to subtraction.

Which of the following statements illustrate the distributive, associate and the commutative property?

Directions: Click on each question mark to see what proprety goes with the statement on the left.

Statement	Property
7 + 2 = 2 + 7	Commutative Property
6 + (2 +11) = (6 + 2 ) + 11	Associative Property
5 (2 +4) =5 • 2 + 5 •4	Distributive property
(12 • 44) • 13 • 5= 12 • 44 • (13 • 5)	Associative Property
5 • 3 • 11 = 11 • 5 • 3	Commutative Property
6 (3 +11+4) =6 • 3 + 6 •11+ 6 •4	Distributive property

Which of the following statements illustrate the distributive, associate and the commutative property?

Directions: Click on each question mark to see what proprety goes with the statement on the left.

Statement	Property
a + c = c + a	Commutative Property
a (x + y + z) =a • x + a •y + a •z	Distributive property
(a • y) • x • z= a • y • (x • z )	Associative Property