Learn French: La maison est sombre et je ne fais rien. - The house is dark and I am doing nothing.

When you use the negative pronoun rien (nothing), it replaces pas. You put ne before the verb and rien after it, just like you would with ne ... pas. So, je ne fais pas is "I don't do", and je ne fais rien is "I do nothing" or "I am not doing anything."

Can I translate je ne fais rien as "I am not doing anything"?

Yes! In French, je ne fais rien translates perfectly to both "I am doing nothing" and "I am not doing anything." Unlike English, French uses the single ne ... rien structure to handle both of those phrasing styles.

What is the base verb for fais?

The verb is faire, an irregular verb meaning "to do" or "to make." Here it is conjugated for je (I). As a quick refresher, the singular present tense forms are je fais, tu fais, and il/elle fait.

Because la maison is feminine, shouldn't sombre have an extra -e added to it?

The adjective sombre (dark) already ends in an -e in its base masculine form. In French, adjectives that already end in a silent -e don't get another one in the feminine form. They stay exactly the same!