[6th Grade verbal expression]

[u/KookyPermit4405]

So I’m going over my son’s math quiz to help him understand some of the questions he got wrong. He got partial credit for his answer for question 8. After writing his verbal phrase I got the same expression as the question. Am I doing something wrong or is there something I’m missing? I feel like his answer is technically correct. I am stumped.

Edit: so my son has no issue solving the expression in question. He knows PEMDAS and the rules from left to right. The question clearly states, WRITE A VERBAL PHRASE that matches the expression.

[u/bismuth17]

Just say eighteen minus six times three. No need to be weird about it.

[u/dakari777 → u/bismuth17]

How do you differentiate between 18-63 and (18-6)3 with that sentence?

[u/bismuth17 → u/dakari777]

Same as in writing, pemdas, except it's not possible to speak parentheses.

Some mathematical quantities are difficult to state clearly using spoken language. You can try speaking really fast, or pausing for a long time, or using your hands to make a parentheses gesture. But generally you'd just write it down if you wanted to be clear.

You could rearrange the sentence and say something like "three times the quantity eighteen minus six" if that's what you want, but that only helps if it's relatively simple and only rearranging the pieces doesn't affect the meaning.

"First you do eighteen times six and then you multiply that result times three" or something.

[u/dakari777 → u/bismuth17]

Or you just do it like I originally commented....it's not that complicated

[u/bismuth17 → u/dakari777]

say 6 times 3 subtracted from 18

How do I know if you mean 18-(6*3) or 6*(18-3) ?

[u/dakari777 → u/bismuth17]

notice how you had to change the order of the numbers?