Subtraction is finding the difference between two numbers whereas division is putting numbers into equal pairs or undoing multiplication ( if that helps ) So... If they say divide 6 by 2 they mean put six into equal pairs of 2 which would equal 3 E.g.:- ( there are 3 pairs of six cars in twos ) You can't use subtraction because that will just find the number difference of 6 and 2 which is 4 Hope that wasn't complicated