The following words and phrases commonly indicate subtraction in word problems:
- minus
- take away
- less than
- fewer than
- subtract
- decreased by
- difference
- reduced by
- how many more
- how much more
- exceeds
These words signal that you need to perform a subtraction operation to solve the problem. For example:
- "What is 5 minus 2?" means 5 - 2 = 3
- "John took away 3 apples from a basket of 10." means 10 - 3 = 7
- "The price was decreased by $5." indicates a subtraction of $5 from the original price.
- "What is the difference between 10 and 4?" means 10 - 4 = 6
- "How many more students are in class A than in class B?" indicates you need to subtract the number of students in class B from the number in class A.
