Verbal Inequalities

Verbal Inequalities

Translating from verbal to algebraic and vice versa.

We have had practice with verbal translations with expressions and equations, but now we want to translate inequalities. There are four inequality signs:

less than <

greater than >

less than or equal to ≤

greater than or equal to ≥

We also have the verbal translations for our operations.

The most confusing of these which you should remember are

Difference(subtract) -

Product(Multiply) *

Quotient(divide) /

Power(exponent) ^

Here are some common inequality verbal words

5 < 8 Five is less than 8

9 > 3 Nine is greater than 3

2 > p People must exceed 2

4 ≥ p At least 4 people are here

7 ≤ p At most 7 people can fit

6 ≤ p People can't exceed 6

Let's try some questions...

Multiple Choice

Product means?

• divide

• add

• subtract

• multiply

Multiple Choice

Quotient means?

• divide

• add

• subtract

• multiply

Multiple Choice

At least five people need to register for the event.

• P < 5

• P > 5

• P ≤ 5

• P ≥ 5

Multiple Choice

The number of people in the room can not exceed fifteen

• P < 15

• P > 15

• P ≤ 15

• P ≥ 15

Multiple Choice

P take away five is less than seven

• P - 5 < 7

• P - 5 ≤ 7

• P/5 < 7

• P/5 ≤ 7

Multiple Choice

The product of P and eight is at most twelve

• P + 8 ≤ 12

• P + 8 < 12

• 8P < 12

• 8P ≤ 12

Multiple Choice

The difference between nine and a number is no more than the quotient of six and the same number.

• 9 - N < 6 / N

• 9 - N ≤ 6 / N

• 9 - N > 6 / N

• 9 - N ≥ 6 / N