Question 1210606
As a written statement, that statement, without any commas, could lead itself to puzzlement, or misinterpretation.
If someone makes that statement orally, I would pay attention to the pauses for clues about its meaning.
 
If I detect a pause after "more" or after "than", I have heard "four more", or "four more than",
I expect that I have to add the number 4 to whatever comes afterwards.
Then, the phrase "three times n" that comes afterwards seems to be an independent quantity, so I expect that I have to multiply the number 3 times the value of n, that is unknown for now.
In that case, I could write the equation as 4+(3n)=-5, or (3n)+4=-5.
However, due to a long ago established and universally agreed upon custom, I know I do not need to write those brackets.
So, I would write {{{4+3n=-5}}} or {{{3n+4=-5}}} to start.
Then, I would add {{{-4}}} to each side of the equal sign (same as subtract 4 each side of the equal sign) to get
{{{4+3n-4=-5-4}}} or {{{3n+4-4=-5-4}}} .
Then I simplify those expressions to get {{{3n=-7}}} .
The next step would be to multiply each side of the equal side by {{{1/3}}} (same as dividing each side by 3) to get
{{{3n/3=-7/3}}} , which simplifies to {{{highlight(n=-7/3)}}} .
My Spidey-sense tells me this is what the teacher meant,
and that the teacher would be happy with a short response like
{{{3n+4=-5}}} --> {{{3n=-5-4}}} --> {{{3n=-7}}} --> {{{n=-7/3}}}
 
On the other hand, if the first pause I detect is after "three", I have heard the phrase "four more than three", which to me means to calculate the sum 3+4=7.
Then, if "times n" comes afterwards, I expect to multiply 7 times n.
In that case I would write {{{(4+3)n=-5}}}-->{{{7n=-5}}}-->{{{n=-5/7}}}