🧱 See It
Picture city streets laid out in a grid. "3 blocks east, 2 blocks north" gets you to one exact corner — no other address means the same thing. A coordinate grid works exactly the same way, except the two directions are called x (east–west) and y (north–south), and either direction can also go negative (west or south of the starting corner).
✏️ Draw It
The starting corner is called the origin, written (0, 0). Four points, one in each quadrant:
To plot (3, 2): start at the origin, move 3 right, then 2 up. Always x first, then y.
🔢 Write It
A point is written as an ordered pair (x, y) — x always comes first. The two axes split the grid into four quadrants, numbered counter-clockwise starting from the top-right:
| Quadrant | Sign pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| I | (+, +) | (3, 2) |
| II | (−, +) | (−2, 4) |
| III | (−, −) | (−3, −2) |
| IV | (+, −) | (4, −3) |
💡 Worked Examples
Example 1 — Plot the point: (−4, 3)
- Start at the origin
(0, 0). - x is −4: move 4 left.
- y is 3: move 3 up.
- Mark the point — it lands in Quadrant II.
Example 2 — Name the quadrant: (5, −1)
- x is positive, y is negative — sign pattern (+, −).
- Answer: Quadrant IV