The commutative property of addition allows two or more addends to be added in any order without changing the sum. For example: A+b=c or b+a=c. The associative property of addition allows you to group addends in different ways without changing the sum. For example: A+(b+c)=d or (a+b)+c=d. The similarity between the associative and commutative properties of addition is that the sums do not change. The different between them is that the commutative property of addition involves changing the order of the addends where as the associative property of addition changes the grouping.