Skill: Interpret subtraction as comparison

Subtraction can show the difference between two amounts. It can tell how many more one group has than another.

Example: Maya has 8 crayons. Leo has 5 crayons. How many more crayons does Maya have?

1. Compare the amounts: $8$ is the greater number, and $5$ is the smaller number.
2. Subtract the smaller amount from the greater amount:

$$8-5=3$$

3. The answer, $3$, is the difference. Maya has 3 more crayons than Leo.
4. This also means Leo has 3 fewer crayons than Maya.

You can check with addition:

$$5+3=8$$

So, $3$ is the distance between $5$ and $8$ on a number line, and the comparison sentence is: 8 is 3 more than 5.