What number is 3 less than 42?

When solving a question like "What number is 3 less than 42?", take a close look at what it is really asking.

You have the number 42 and you are looking for a number that is 3 less than 42. In other words, if you have 42 and take away 3, then how many do you have?

You guessed it! This is a subtraction problem. 42 is the minuend and 3 is subtrahend and the answer we are looking for is the difference.

Therefore, to solve "What number is 3 less than 42?", you subtract 3 from 42 like so:

42 - 3 = 39

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