Eddie had 3 fewer apples than John. Then, he gave 2 apples to John. Now how many fewer apples does Eddie have than John?

Eddie now has 5 apples fewer than john.

as an equation, this could look so - > e = j - 5

from the top - >

eddie (e) has 3 less apples than john (j), so e = j - 3

eddie then gave 2 more apples to john, so

e - 2

j + 2

since e = j - 3, we need to add two more apples to that, equalling j - 5 = e