How to Solve Subtraction Word Problems

There are 10 pencils on a desk. The teacher takes 6 pencils. How many pencils are left?

How can we solve this word problem? 🤔

      There are four steps to solving word problems:

Read Carefully

Find Keywords

Write An Equation

Solve the Problem

Let's learn each step.

1. Read Carefully

Let's re-read our problem:

There are 10 pencils on a desk. The teacher takes 6 pencils. How many pencils are left?

When you finish reading, ask yourself: "What's the problem asking me to do?"

2. Find Keywords

      A keyword gives you a clue about which operation to use.

Here are some keywords used with subtraction: 

minus, lost, change, difference, fewer, need to, reduce, subtract, take away, remain, left, less

Do you see any keyword in our word problem?

There are 10 pencils on a desk. The teacher takes 6 pencils. How many pencils are left on the desk?

"Takes" and "left" are keywords that tell us that we need to subtract.

3. Write an Equation

In this problem, the teacher is taking away 6 from 10 pencils. 

Our equation is:

10 - 6 = ?

4. Solve the Problem

The last step is to solve the problem. 

If you don't know the answer by heart yet, you can use your fingers, pictures, or a number line to count down.

Let's draw pictures:

You have 10 pencils. You take away 6.

10 - 6 = 4

Our answer is 4. We write a complete sentence for it.

There are 4 pencils left on the desk.

Great job! 🤗 You've got it!

Now, try the practice.