400 reduced by 3 times my age is 214 Let my age be a. We have: 3 times my age: 3a 400 reduced by 3 times my age: 400 - 3a The word is means an equation. So we set 400 - 3a equal to 214 400 - 3a = 214 Now if you want to solve this equation for a, we type it in the search engine and we get; a = 62