Basic MATH vocabulary in English

Hello, my name's Ronnie. I am going to teach you about math. I hate math.

It's really confusing. I am going to teach you some easy expressions

about math. I am NOT going to teach you math! You can teach me math,

because... can I do it?

I remember being a child, being a teenager, and being a now-ager and math

terrifies me. There are too many numbers, too many things to remember,

therefore I am an ESL teacher, not a math teacher. But I can teach you how

to talk about it.

So I will teach you the English you need to know to talk about math -- bear with.

First thing: the very, very long word for this is "mathematics". We

never have to say "mathematics", or "arithmetic". If you are a very, very old

person, living... you might be dead now... you would say arithmetic.

Arithmetic is a very, very old word for math, or mathematics, that we do not

use today -- it's too old. Don't even worry about it. Don't worry about

math! So the first thing that I am going to teach you are the symbols, or

how to the say the symbols.

This sign "+" we say "add". This one (-) is "subtract", (/) "divide", and (x) "multiply"

However, when we actually speak about math in a sentence in

English, we don't use these words. We use these red words, so instead of

saying for example: "5 add 7"; we say "5 plus 7", so if you

look at my equation here we say: "5 plus 7 equals"

"5 plus 7 equals 12." I did it, I did it, I did it. I get an answer right.

I hope that's right.... 5 plus 7 equals 12 -- *ding* a point for me. The

next one's yours. We do not say "subtract", we say "minus". This is the sign (-)

So we would say "7 minus 1". Do you know the answer? If you

know the answer, you've got homework.

Go to You Tube, subscribe to my channel, write the answer to this in the

comments. You'll win, you'll win amazing prizes like trips to places, and

money about things, it'd be a fabulous great time. The next one is "divide".

This is closer. We say divided by, so we say "42 divided by 2."

This one's mine. "42 divided by 2 is 22." (21!)

The last one is "multiply". It looks like an "x" and you might

say "9 x 7". We have to say "9 times 7". I don't know why

"times" is an "x" -- it's math. Math is difficult and complicated and hard,

but I'm going to teach you a trick.

My Grade 4 teacher taught me this. This is the only thing that I can do, like

magic for math. If you want to figure out what 9 times something is

up to 10... You are going to take your fingers, and you're going to count.

For example, if I want to do 9 times 7, I do this: one, two, three, four,

five, six, seven, and I put number seven down. I have one, two, three,

four, five, six, and three. Magically, the answer is 63.

Let's try again. 9 times 9. So count on your fingers, one, two

three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Put number nine down. You

count how many fingers you have here. I have, oh, I have two thumbs. It

doesn't matter. I have eight fingers here, and one here, the answer for

9 times 9 is 81.

Yes! Nine times tables -- ask me anything up to 10, past 10 I've run out

fingers, can't use my toes. I don't even have toes. I don't even have toes.

I don't even have legs. I am just floating here, teaching you math(ematics). See you, later.

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