The US spoon-and-cup ladder
US recipe measures nest in a fixed ladder: 3 teaspoons make a tablespoon, 16 tablespoons make a cup, 2 cups make a pint. A US tablespoon is 14.79 ml and a cup 236.59 ml. Metric-country recipes use a 15 ml tablespoon and a 250 ml cup, which works out to 16⅔ tablespoons per cup — Australia's tablespoon is 20 ml, which is 12½ to its cup. When converting a recipe, use one system throughout and the ratios stay right.
cups (US) = tablespoons ÷ 16 | tablespoons = cups (US) × 16
Fractions of a cup in spoons
¼ cup is 4 tablespoons; ⅓ cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon; ½ cup is 8 tablespoons; ¾ cup is 12. The awkward one is a third: 16 ÷ 3 = 5.33 tablespoons, and the 0.33 is one teaspoon.