3 times 20 is 60 — with the shortcut, the division facts and a drill to make it stick
3 × 20 = 60. That is the short answer, and it is the same answer whichever way round you write the two numbers. Below is where 60 comes from, the shortcut that gets you there without counting, the division facts that travel with it, and the fastest way to move it from "I can work it out" to "I just know it".
3 × 20 = 60. Said out loud in the way most classrooms say it: Three twenties are sixty.
20 + 20 + 20 = 60 — that is three twenties added together.
Written the other way round the answer does not change. 20 × 3 = 60 as well, because multiplication is commutative — the order of the two factors never affects the product. That halves how many facts you actually have to learn: get 3 × 20 and you have 20 × 3 for free.
Twenty is double ten. Double 3 to get 6, then write a zero on the end: 60.
Because one of the factors is even, the answer has to be even. 60 is, so the parity check passes.
Every multiplication fact comes with a division fact on its back. These four all say the same thing about 3, 20 and 60: 3 × 20 = 60; 20 × 3 = 60; 60 ÷ 3 = 20; 60 ÷ 20 = 3.
Learning them as one family rather than four separate things is the single biggest shortcut in times-table practice. If you can answer "60 divided by 3" as fast as you can answer "3 times 20", the fact is genuinely learned rather than just recognised.
In the 3 times table, 60 is the twentieth step: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48, 51, 54, 57, 60.
In the 20 times table it is the third step instead: 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200, 220, 240.
Seeing the same number arrive from two directions is what makes it stick. 60 is a landmark in both rows, so whichever table you are drilling you meet it again.
3 × 19 = 57, 3 × 21 = 63, 2 × 20 = 40, 4 × 20 = 80. Those are the answers people most often give by accident when they are a beat too quick.
The gap between neighbours is worth knowing on its own: each extra three adds 3 to the running total, and each extra twenty adds 20. So if 3 × 20 = 60 is solid, you can reach 3 × 21 by adding 3 rather than starting again.
Recognising a fact and recalling it under time pressure are different skills. A fact you can work out in four seconds still costs you four seconds every time it appears inside a longer calculation.
Short daily bursts beat long sessions: a 60-second drill every day will fix a table faster than one twenty-minute sitting a week. Mix the fact you are learning in among ones you already know so recall is being tested, not the order of a list.
3 times 20 is 60. In words, three twenties are sixty.
20 times 3 is also 60. Swapping the two factors never changes the answer, so 20 × 3 and 3 × 20 both come to 60.
60 ÷ 3 = 20, because 3 × 20 = 60. The matching fact is 60 ÷ 20 = 3.
Twenty is double ten. Double 3 to get 6, then write a zero on the end: 60.
Yes. 60 is the twentieth number in the 3 times table, and the third number in the 20 times table.
Every multiplication fact from 2 × 2 to 20 × 20 has its own page here, and the full grid is on the multiplication chart.