Question

Find the GCF of 36m and 12. Simple, yes, but I don't know if the variable has to do anything with it.

Answer 1

12 is a factor of both  36m  and  12, but 'm' isn't.
So  12  is the GCF  of both  36m  and  12.

If you were to factor the GCF out of their sum,
you'd have
                     12(3m + 1)    .