Word Problems: Subtraction

Subtraction, in sentences

Somebody has a quantity and gives some away. How many are left. That is the shape, with the names and the objects varying question to question.

Easy keeps the total under thirty. Medium runs to ninety. Hard reaches a hundred and eighty, where borrowing across a ten is routine.

Subtraction has more than one meaning

This is what makes it harder than addition, and it is rarely taught explicitly.

Taking away is one meaning. Finding a difference is another — how many more does Sam have than Priya — and it involves nothing being removed at all. Finding a missing part is a third. All three are subtractions and they feel completely different to a child, which is why one who is fluent at take-away can stall on a comparison question.

What the bands do

Easy, medium, hard: bigger numbers, same sentence structure throughout.

Keeping the wording constant is the point. If a child can handle the easy sheet and not the hard one, the difficulty is arithmetic; if they are stuck on both, it is comprehension, and those need completely different help.

Where the marks go

Not on the subtraction. On deciding that it was one.

The commonest failure is the number grab: spot two numbers, apply whatever operation the last lesson used, move on. Break it with a fixed routine — pencil down, read it through, describe the situation out loud, then find the question sentence and underline that rather than the digits.

Do not teach keyword spotting

"Left over means take away" survives exactly as long as the questions are written the way the examples were.

The durable question is what is happening in the story. Is something being removed, or compared, or is a part missing from a known whole? A child who can answer that will pick the right operation no matter how the sentence is arranged.

Using the sheets

Twelve problems as standard, with a key. The generator varies names and objects between sheets, so you can print a fresh one for a resit without printing the same questions.

Ask for several worksheets at once and you have the week.

Companion sheets: addition, multiplication and division. For bare sums, the subtraction worksheet generator.