By the end of year 5 children should have a very good understanding of what multiplication is. They should be able to understand the operation of multiplication as the same process as repeated addition. In other words, eight fifteens is the same as adding fifteen eight times. They should understand the following words and be able to read and write them: times,  multiply, multiplied by, product, multiple, inverse, and they should know and recognise the multiplication sign (×). Definitions: Product: the answer to a multiplication sum. e.g.  the product of 7 and 11 is 77. Multiple: the numbers in the times tables. e.g. the multiples of 6 are   6,  12,  18,  24,  30, ... Inverse: opposite. e.g. the inverse of multiplication is division. e.g. the inverse of addition is subtraction. Children should understand the commutative law, the associative law and the distributive law (but not, thankfully, the words themselves) as applied to multiplication. Read more about these laws and concepts of multiplication