Translation

Often, word problems seem tricky because it’s hard to figure out precisely what they’re asking. It can be difficult to translate English
into math. The following table lists some common words and phrases that turn up in word problems, along with their mathematical
translations.

When you see: Think:

sum, plus, more than, added to, combined total +

minus, less than, difference between, decreased by −

is, was, equals, is equivalent to, is the same as, adds up to =

times, product, multiplied by, of, twice, double, triple ×

divided by, over, quotient, per, out of, into ÷

what, how much, how many, a number x, n, etc.