Answer:When solving a question like "What number is 4 less than 9?", take a close look at what it is really asking.
You have the number 9 and you are looking for a number that is 4 less than 9. In other words, if you have 9 and take away 4, then how many do you have?
You guessed it! This is a subtraction problem. 9 is the minuend and 4 is subtrahend and the answer we are looking for is the difference.
Therefore, to solve "What number is 4 less than 9?", you subtract 4 from 9 like so:
9 - 4 = 5
Explanation: