Grade 4 Subtraction Word Problems
Grade 4 subtraction word problems sheet: 10 problems on .
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Three different problem sets — same skill, same layout, fresh numbers.
Preview — Set A
Read each problem carefully. Show your work, then write your answer on the line.
- 1.A parking lot has 498 spaces and 186 cars are parked. How many spaces are empty?
- 2.Diego saved 485 dollars in June and 302 dollars in July. How much money did Diego save in all?
- 3.A farm had 420 eggs and sold 319 of them at the market. How many eggs are left?
- 4.There are 416 postcards in a jar. Omar moves 279 of them to another jar. How many postcards stay?
- 5.A tank holds 360 liters of water. 167 liters leaked out. How many liters are still in the tank?
- 6.A bus starts with 199 riders and picks up 318 more at the next stop. How many riders are on the bus?
- 7.There were 436 birds on a wire. 426 of them flew away. How many birds are still on the wire?
- 8.The pool holds 155 liters. 72 liters have been pumped in. How many more liters will it take to fill it?
- 9.Kira counted 183 apples yesterday and only 59 today. How many fewer apples are there today?
- 10.A pack holds 475 cookies. Kira puts 61 more cookies in it. How many cookies are in the pack now?
What this worksheet covers
Set A of this grade 4 word problems sheet holds ten story problems on one printable page, with the answer key on the page behind it. Within that, each problem arrives as a few sentences of context rather than a bare expression and the quantities are amounts of money, so answers need a dollar or cent sign to be complete. Two problems from the middle of the page — "There are 416 postcards in a jar. Omar moves 279 of them to…" and "There were 436 birds on a wire. 426 of them flew away. How…" — show the range.
Skills practised
Grade 4 subtraction means the standard algorithm on four- and five-digit numbers. Concretely, the sheet tests whether a student can read a situation and choose an operation before computing and carry money notation through to the answer.
About the word problems format
Story problems are set one to a line with room to work underneath, problem 4, "There are 416 postcards in a jar. Omar moves 279 of them to…" among them, and the key gives each of the 10 answers with its unit. Take-away, comparison and missing-part situations all call for subtraction, and telling them apart is the reading work this format practises.
Set A, Set B and Set C
The three sets come from the same generator with three different seeds: same skill, same layout, fresh numbers, and an answer key computed with the problems. Where Set A's problem 6 is "A bus starts with 199 riders and picks up 318 more at the…", Set B's is "Priya wrote 164 words in the morning and 425 words at…".
How to use this worksheet
Work the ten problems straight through, then check against the key together rather than handing it back marked; asking a grade 4 student to find their own subtraction error teaches more than seeing it circled. Print Set B of this subtraction word problems before writing on Set A; the same skill worked twice a week apart tells you far more than once.
The full guide to teaching subtractionTeaching subtraction from take-away to signed numbers: the grade 1–8 progression, borrowing across zeros, and the six error patterns that stall students.Other grade 4 subtraction formats
The same skill in the other formats available at this grade.
- Drill — Grade 4 Subtraction Drill, 30 problems
- Timed Drill — Grade 4 Subtraction Timed Drill, 72 problems
- Missing Number — Grade 4 Subtraction Missing Number, 24 problems
- Mixed Review — Grade 4 Subtraction Mixed Review, 30 problems
- Vertical Format — Grade 4 Multi-Digit Subtraction (Standard Algorithm), 16 problems
A step either side
The same format one grade down and one grade up — the easier sheet is often the faster fix when this one is not landing.
- Grade 3 Subtraction Word Problems — grade 3, 10 problems
Word Problems sheets in other grade 4 topics
Free to download, print and photocopy for a whole class: three word problems sheets of grade 4 subtraction, ten problems each, keys included.