These lessons look at simple examples of subtraction word problems.

Words like ‘difference’, ‘less’, ‘take away’, ‘loss’ usually means that subtraction is involved.

For subtraction, take note which number has to be subtracted from which number. Subtracting in the wrong order will give you the wrong answer.

Example:
Andy has 53 marbles. Sam has 105 marbles and lost 8 when his bag of marbles dropped. Find the difference between the number of marbles that Sam has left and Andy’s.

Solution:
[Sam has 105 marbles] – [8 lost] – [Andy has 53 marbles]

105 – 8 – 53 = 44 marbles

Examples of subtraction word problems

1. John has 12 apples, and he gives away 5 of them. How many apples does he have left?
2. What is the difference between 17 and 38?
3. Jennifer has eighteen apples, and Mike has twelve. How many more apples does Jennifer have than Mike?

Multiplication Word Problems

Word problems with multiplication often use a number of items that has a known value each – such as ‘three bags of marbles, each bag has 40 marbles’, ‘six RM5 note’, ‘six packs of eggs, each pack has 12 eggs’.

Example:

Ruth bought 6 bags of oranges from a stall. If each bag contains 8 oranges, how many oranges did she buy?

Solution:

[6 bags] × [8 oranges in each bag]

6 × 8 = 48 oranges

Example:

At a library there are 42 bookshelves. Each bookshelf has 6 rows of shelves. If 75 books can be stacked on each row of shelf, what is the total number of books that the library can hold?

Solution:

[42 bookshelves] × [6 rows] × [75 books]

42 × 6 × 75 = 18,900 books

Multiplication Word Problems

Examples:

1. A store owner was buying uniforms for his employees. If each of these stores needed eight uniforms how many uniforms would he need?
2. John bought two boxes of books at a yard sale. If each box had five books how many books did he buy?
3. An employee at a construction site earns eight dollars an hour. If he works eight hours in one week, how much money would he have earned?
4. A pet store sold five gerbils in one week. If each of the gerbils cost eight dollars, how much money would they have made?