Write a verbal expression for the algebraic expression

In this video, we are going to learn how to turn verbal expressions and equations into algebraic expressions and equations. When turning expressions into mathematical expressions, we use keywords to determine the operation that should be used. Specific keywords or phrases in the verbal expression allows us to also determine the order of numbers and variables, “greater than”, “less than”, and “difference of”. After you finish this lesson, view all of our Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1 lessons and practice problems.

x increased by 5
x decreased by 5
x less than 5

Verbal Equations to Algebraic Equations

Examples of Verbal To Algebraic Expressions & Equations

Example 1

The product of and decreased by

The product of and would be which we know is .

Decreased means we subtract.

Therefore, the algebraic expression is,

Example 2

The quotient of and is less than

Since quotient is the answer to division, it would be

The less than sign is

Therefore,

Video-Lesson Transcript

Let’s go over changing verbal expression into algebraic expressions.

For example:

increased by this will be .

decreased by since it’s a decrease, we are taking away from . So this becomes .

greater than , here we have more than . We have and we’re increasing it by . Here we have .

less than . So think about this, if we have less than . We have and we’re taking away from it. So it’s .

The sum of and is just .

The difference of and , difference is the answer to subtraction so we have is .

Then the product of and would be which we know is .

The order isn’t important in multiplication and addition.

The quotient of and , since quotient is the answer to division our answer would be .

You should get familiar with these different expressions. Some may memorize these. But it’s nice to look at these expressions and make sense of it.

Now, let’s look at changing verbal equations to algebraic equations.

Verbal equations are expressions that have equal signs.

So, we’re going to do this in equality. Like equal to, less than, greater than, less than or equal to, or greater than or equal to.

Let’s have some examples.

greater than is .

This becomes .

The product of and is less than .

The difference of and is greater than .

more than the product of and is .

Let me point out the difference between these two:

less than
and
is less than

less than is

While is less than is .

“Is” in the sentence is an equality sign. That’s why we come up with the less than sign.

What is an example of a algebraic expression?