Question 503691
Read through and try writing it out in numbers
"Four times"- We know we're multiplying something by four
"the sum of y and 3"- We now know what we're multiplying four by (y+3)

4(y+3)=-1 If you need to solve...
4y+12=-1 (distribute 4. 4*y and 4*12)
4y=11    (subtract 12 from both sides)
y=11/4   (divide each side by 4 to get y alone)