What number is 5 less than 3?

When solving a question like "What number is 5 less than 3?", take a close look at what it is really asking.

You have the number 3 and you are looking for a number that is 5 less than 3. In other words, if you have 3 and take away 5, then how many do you have?

You guessed it! This is a subtraction problem. 3 is the minuend and 5 is subtrahend and the answer we are looking for is the difference.

Therefore, to solve "What number is 5 less than 3?", you subtract 5 from 3 like so:

3 - 5 = -2

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