Tablespoon to teaspoon
Three teaspoons make a tablespoon in the US, the UK and under the metric convention, so this page multiplies and divides by three. Australia is the exception: its tablespoon is 20 ml against a 5 ml teaspoon, which makes it four.
How to convert spoons
The three-to-one ratio survives even though the absolute sizes do not, because the two spoons were scaled together in every system except one. In US customary measure a tablespoon is half a US fluid ounce, 14.79 ml, and a teaspoon is a third of that, 4.93 ml. In metric countries the spoons are 15 ml and 5 ml. The UK uses the metric pair. Three holds in all of them, so a recipe crossing between the US and Europe never needs this arithmetic redone.
Australia is where it breaks. The Australian tablespoon is 20 ml, defined that way during metrication so that it would be exactly four 5 ml teaspoons rather than an awkward three. The defining document is the domestic measuring-spoon standard AS 1325, which is a paid Standards Australia publication rather than something you can look up for free; the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code uses the phrase "metric tablespoon" without ever putting a millilitre figure to it. The practical consequence is unambiguous even if the paperwork is not: follow an Australian recipe with a European tablespoon and you are a quarter short on everything measured that way.
There is a second US tablespoon, and it is not an error. For nutrition labelling, US regulation defines a tablespoon as exactly 15 ml, a teaspoon as 5 ml, a cup as 240 ml and a fluid ounce as 30 ml. Those are rounded household figures written into the rules so that every label uses the same ones. So a US tablespoon is 14.79 ml in a measuring set and 15 ml on the back of a packet, and both numbers are correct for their own purpose. Our unit converter carries the customary figures, which is why it says 14.79.
Level or heaped is the part that costs more than any of this. A recipe means level unless it says otherwise, meaning struck flat with the back of a knife, and a heaped spoon holds roughly double. On oil or milk the difference disappears into the dish. On baking powder, bicarbonate, yeast, salt or a strong spice it is the difference between the recipe working and not, because those ingredients have no tolerance to spare.
What people use it for
- Scaling a recipe down when only the small spoon is to hand
- Following an Australian recipe measured with its 20 ml tablespoon
- Getting a raising-agent quantity right, where the margin is small
- Reading a cocktail or dressing recipe written in the other spoon
- Splitting a half tablespoon into teaspoons without guessing
- Checking a supplement dose given in spoons rather than millilitres
Questions
Three, in the US, UK and metric conventions. Four in Australia, where the tablespoon is 20 ml against the same 5 ml teaspoon.
About 14.79 in US customary measure, exactly 15 in metric countries and on US nutrition labels, and 20 in Australia.
Customary measure makes it half a US fluid ounce, 14.79 ml. US labelling regulation rounds it to exactly 15 ml so every nutrition panel uses the same figure. Both are right for their own purpose.
Only in Australia. Everywhere else both spoons were scaled together, so three holds whatever the absolute sizes are.
Between a European 15 ml spoon and an Australian 20 ml one, a quarter. Between the US 14.79 and the metric 15, about one and a half per cent, which nothing notices.
Level unless the recipe says otherwise, meaning struck flat with the back of a knife. A heaped spoon is roughly double.
Baking powder, bicarbonate, yeast, salt and strong spices. Those have no margin. Oil, milk and stock have plenty.
Sixteen in US measure, which our converter reproduces exactly. A 250 ml metric cup is a little under seventeen 15 ml spoons.
One and a half. A quarter tablespoon is three quarters of a teaspoon, which is easier to measure as a rounded half.
No. A dessertspoon is 10 ml in British and Australian recipes, sitting between the two. Some older British books use it as a measure in its own right.
Not reliably. Eating spoons are made to a pattern rather than to a volume, and two sets from different makers hold noticeably different amounts. Measuring spoons exist for exactly that reason.
No. Spoons measure volume. A tablespoon of flour is about 8 g, of granulated sugar about 12 g, of honey about 21 g. Weigh anything where the ratio matters.
The spoon is, yes. Unlike cups, which come in separate dry and liquid sets in the US, spoons are one measure used for both.
It was set at 20 ml during metrication so that a tablespoon would be a clean four teaspoons. Everyone else kept the three that their older spoons already gave.
One and a half teaspoons. Halving again gives three quarters of a teaspoon, which is the point at which weighing becomes more accurate.
Type them as decimals. The quick reference underneath covers a quarter, a half and the whole numbers up to four.
Six in US measure, since a fluid ounce is two tablespoons. Roughly six in metric terms too, at 30 ml against 5.
Yes, in this browser. The page opens the way you last used it.
No. It is a multiplication by three and it happens as you type.