Manuel ate 1/3 of the crackers on the plate. his brother ate 1/4 of the crackers. there were 5 crackers left. how many crackers were on the plate to begin with?

There were 11 crackers to begin with. Because if you give the fractions a common denominator of 12 you multiply how you got to 12 by the top as well then you would subtract and add it to the five that were left