Love Minus Zero: basic vocabulary for maths

4th December 2021

Some useful words for basic maths. Firstly, in the UK we say ‘maths‘ while our cousins across the pond in the USA say ‘math.’

To begin we have addition (+)

Noun = addition // verb = add // sign + // may hear ‘plus‘

EXAMPLE:

If you add 17 and 13 what is the answer ? [17 + 13 = ?]

The = sign is pronounced equals

Furthermore you may hear:

What is 17 plus 13 or What is 17 and 13 ?

What do you get if you add 17, 13 and 3 together ?

Practice: I’m very good at ________ (noun). I can ______ (verb) many numbers very quickly.

Next we have subtraction (-)

Noun = subtraction // verb = subtract // sign – //

may hear ‘minus‘

EXAMPLE: Can you subtract 12 from 111 ? [111 -12 = ?]

Furthermore you may hear:

What is 111 minus 12 ?

Moving on we have multiplication (x)

Noun = multiplication // verb = multiply // sign x // may hear ‘times‘

EXAMPLE: Can you multiply 7 by 4 ?

Furthermore you may hear:

What is 7 times 4 ?

And finally, division (÷)

Noun = division // verb = divide // sign ÷ // may hear ‘into‘

EXAMPLE: What is 100 divided by 4 ?

Furthermore you may hear:

How many times does 4 go into 100 ? What goes into 100 4 times ?

Practice – how would you say these:

25 + 30 =

12 x 10 =

95 – 35 =

39 ÷ 13 =

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