Multiplication

Multiplication is a way of adding a number to itself a certain number of times. For example, if you have 3 groups of 4 apples, instead of counting all 12 apples one by one, you can just use multiplication and say 3 x 4 = 12. The 3 is how many groups of 4 there are, and the 4 is how many apples are in each group.

Another way to think about it is that multiplication is like repeated addition. For example, 2 x 3 is like 2 + 2 + 2, which equals 6. It's a faster way to do addition with bigger numbers.