Subtraction word problems, step by step
Subtraction hides inside more kinds of story than addition does.
The question
How many pencils does Zoe have left?
Zoe had 12 pencils and used 6 of them.
Zoe had 12 pencils and used 6 of them.
numbers:126
12 − 6
asked:How many pencils does Zoe have left?
12 − 6 =6
6 pencils
- Read it through once. Grabbing the numbers on the first read means choosing an operation before you know the story, and that choice is the only hard part of a word problem.
- Now the numbers: 12 and 6. Finding them is not the same as knowing what to do with them — that comes next, and it comes from the story rather than from the numbers.
- Something is being taken away or compared. So this one is a subtraction: 12 − 6.
- 12 − 6 = 6 pencils. And answer the question that was ASKED — "How many pencils does Zoe have left?" — in pencils, because the sum on its own is not yet an answer.
How it works.
- 01
Read it through once. Grabbing the numbers on the first read means choosing an operation before you know the story, and that choice is the only hard part of a word problem.
- 02
Now the numbers: 12 and 6. Finding them is not the same as knowing what to do with them — that comes next, and it comes from the story rather than from the numbers.
- 03
Something is being taken away or compared. So this one is a subtraction: 12 − 6.
- 04
12 − 6 = 6 pencils. And answer the question that was ASKED — "How many pencils does Zoe have left?" — in pencils, because the sum on its own is not yet an answer.