So to approach this equation we are first going to distribute which means multiply what is inside parentheses . So 3 times a is 3a and 3 times 1 is simply 3. So we solved what was inside parentheses! But we are not done with the other side of the equation. so 3a+3= 19-5a so you can approach this any way you like meaning you can subtract 3 from both sides or subtract 3a from both sides. so lets subtract so +3-3 is 0 they cancel each other out then don't forget to bring down the 3a so 3a= 16-5a we got 16 because we subtracted 3 from both sides. So now we can add 5a to both sides 3a+5a is 8a =16 a=2 . Hoped that helped !! :)