Alright, ready to do some subtraction? We're taking 51997 and subtracting 18415 from it.

Step 1: We'll start by subtracting the digit 5 and the borrow 0 from 7 in column 1 and get 2.
2 is the first digit of our result.

Step 2: We'll start by subtracting the digit 1 and the borrow 0 from 9 in column 2 and get 8.
8 is the next digit of our result.

Step 3: We'll start by subtracting the digit 4 and the borrow 0 from 9 in column 3 and get 5.
5 is the next digit of our result.

Step 4: We'll start by subtracting the digit 8 and the borrow 0 from 1 in column 4 and get -7.
We add -7 to 10 and get 3 as the next digit of the result.

Step 5: We'll start by subtracting the digit 1 and the borrow 1 from 5 in column 5 and get 3.
3 is the next digit of our result.

So, 51997 - 18415 = 33582.