Phrase reference

This page lists every English phrase Varlig Calc recognises, grouped by topic. Use it to look up the exact wording of a phrase; each section links to the guide page that explains it.

In the patterns:

• A, B, C and D stand for any value or calculation, such as £80 or 2 hours.
• N is a count, P a percentage, R a rate and U a unit.
• Words in capitals, such as WEEKDAY, YEAR or PLACE, stand for that kind of value.

Every phrase works on a line of its own, with nothing to put in front of it. A leading what is is optional. See How Varlig reads a phrase.

Percentages

Guide: Percentages

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20% off £45 gives £36.00

increase £80 by 15% gives £92.00

£80 less 15% gives £68.00

£45 is what % of £60 gives 75%

£40 to £50 is what % gives 25%

£51 is 15% off what gives £60.00

£92 is what % more than £80 gives 15%

£92 is 15% more than what gives £80.00

2 is to 3 as 10 is to what gives 15

Purchases and sharing

Guide: Natural-language phrases

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3 tickets at £50 each gives £150.00

5 items at $20 each after 15% discount with 8% tax gives $91.80

£45 with 20% VAT gives £54.00

£10.50 with 5% off gives £9.98

$1,899 - 10% student discount gives $1,709.10

3 coffees @ £2.80 gives £8.40

2 adults at £15 + 3 children at £8 gives £54.00

split £100 among 3 people gives £33.33

£150 split 4 ways gives £37.50

£15 less than £80 gives £65.00

£100 less £20 gives £80.00

5 more than 20 gives 25

Rounding

Guide: Rounding

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round £17.46 to nearest 5p gives £17.45

round 23 up to nearest 6 gives 24

pi to 3 dp gives 3.142

12345.678 to 3 sf gives 12,300

round 7.5 down gives 7

round up 25 / 6 gives 5

After round up or round down at the start of a line, A is the whole calculation that follows. A money step can be written in coins, as in to nearest 5p, to nearest 50c or to nearest 5 cents, or as a coin or currency alone: to nearest penny, cent, pound, dollar or euro. to the nearest works wherever to nearest does.

Mathematics

Guide: Word-based mathematics

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half of £90 gives £45.00

double £80 gives £160.00

the difference between £120 and £85 gives £35.00

10 squared gives 100

10 choose 3 gives 120

1 in 5 as % gives 20%

remainder of 17 divided by 5 gives 2

square root of 144 gives 12

log base 2 of 1024 gives 10

is 97 prime gives true

average of 12, 18, 9 and 21 gives 15

Units

Guide: Units and conversions

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convert 5 km into miles gives 3.1068559612 mi

14 ft by 12 ft gives 168 ft²

170 cm in feet and inches gives 5 feet 6.9291338583 inches

82 kg in stones and pounds gives 12 st 13 lb

gas mark 4 gives 180 °C

5 km in 26:45 gives 05:21/km

42.195 km at 5:30/km gives 3 hours 52 min 4.35 s

unit mug = 250 mL

6 mug in L gives 1.5 L

1 can = 330 mL

3 can in mL gives 990 mL

Dates and calendar

Guide: Dates

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days between 1 March 2025 and 1 June 2025 gives 92 days

1 March 2025 + 10 workdays gives March 14, 2025

first monday of October 2025 gives October 6, 2025

10 days from 1 October 2025 gives October 11, 2025

workdays in March 2025 gives 21 workdays

first quarter of 2026 gives Jan 1 – Mar 31, 2026

weekday on 25 December 2030 gives Wednesday

Easter 2027 gives March 28, 2027

easter(2030) gives April 21, 2030

1 March 2026 as 'Week' ww gives Week 09

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3 weeks from now gives October 7, 2026 at 3:53 PM

6 weeks from today gives October 28

next week gives Sep 21 – Sep 27, 2026

days until Christmas gives 100 days

days until 25/12 gives 100 days

days left in the year gives 106 days

last friday of the month gives September 25

year percentage gives 70.8664288432%

In Pick a day of a period, the period is a month, such as October 2026 or next month, a quarter or a year. A day the period doesn’t have shows an error. A written date can put its ordinal on either side of the month (June 14th 2025, 14th June 2025, June the 14th). A repeating date such as every monday isn’t worked out: the line says it’s a recurring date. In UNITS left in PERIOD, the period is a year, such as 2026, or the week, the month, the quarter or the year. last quarter on its own is the quarter before this one, while last quarter of YEAR is October to December of that year. In a pattern such as 'Week' ww, text in single quotes is shown as written and ww is the week number.

Holiday names are listed in Holidays and time-zone names.

Clock times and time zones

Guides: Clock times and durations, Time zones

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9:30 am + 2 hours 45 min gives 12:15 PM

9:30 am to 5:15 pm gives 7 hours 45 min

90 min as HMS gives 1h 30m 0s

half an hour + 20 min gives 50 min

7.30pm + 2 hours gives 9:30 PM

half past 7 + 20 min gives 7:50 AM

2026-03-01T15:00:00Z in Tokyo gives March 2, 2026 at 12:00 AM

June 16 2025 at 2pm PT in UK time gives June 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM

June 16 2025 at 9am in New York in London time gives June 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM

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3:00 pm London in Tokyo gives 11:00 PM

3:00 pm London in Mumbai gives 7:30 PM

time in New York gives 11:53 AM

today in Tokyo gives September 17

A PLACE or ZONE can be a time-zone name, an abbreviation or a major city such as Mumbai, Beijing or Munich. A place Varlig doesn’t know shows an error rather than an unconverted time. The full lists are in Holidays and time-zone names.

Video timecodes

Guide: Video timecodes and frames

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01:00:10:00 at 25 fps in frames gives 90,250 frames

250 frames @ 25 fps gives 00:00:10:00

Finance

Guide: Finance, inflation and tax

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£5,000 for 3 years at 4% gives £5,624.32

interest on £5,000 for 3 years at 4% gives £624.32

£200 a month for 10 years at 5% gives £31,056.46

£45k per annum in £/month gives £3,750.00/month

£10 a week for 6 months gives £260.89

3 times a week at £5 gives £15.00/week

monthly repayment on £200,000 over 25 years at 4.5% gives £1,111.66

annual return on £8000 invested £8820 returned after 2 years gives 5%

time from £1000 to £1331 at 10% per year gives 3 years

£1,980 over 10 months gives £198.00/month

Inflation

Guide: Finance, inflation and tax

The forms that compare two real years, or a past year with today, use published price-index data, so they only give an answer when that data is available. The forms with an assumed rate need no data.

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$100 in 2000 is worth what in 2025 gives $186.96

value of £1,000 in 2030 assuming 3% inflation gives £888.49

Tax

Guide: Finance, inflation and tax

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£80 with 20% VAT gives £96.00

$999 + 8.25% sales tax gives $1,081.42

$84 with 8% tax with 15% tip gives $104.33

Cooking, sound, screens and mechanics

Guides: Cooking, sound, screens and mechanics, Rates, speed, pace, fuel and transfer time

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1 cup flour in g to 0 dp gives 140 g

440 Hz to pitch gives A4

(ppi of 27 inches at 2560 x 1440) to 0 dp gives 109 PPI

(time to download 60 GB at 400 Mbps) in minutes gives 20 min

Phrases that need outside data

These phrases are recognised, but their answers depend on data the calculator doesn’t hold itself: market prices, weather, places, text and tags. When that data isn’t available, the line can’t give an answer.