you can determine this by getting a common denominator between the two fractions. the closest common denominator in this case is 40 because 4 and 10 share the same multiple at 40. to get 40 on both denominators multiply by 10 for 1/4 and multiply by 4 for 4/10. then you will see that you have 10/40 and 16/40. disregard the 5 infront of the fraction and then look at the fraction alone to determine which one is less. in this case, since 10/40 is less than 16/40, 5 1/4 is less than 5 4/10.
