Breakdown of On s'ennuie, on ne fait absolument rien à côté de la cheminée.
on
one / we (informal)
ne
not (used before the verb)
faire
to do, to make
à côté de
next to
Questions & Answers about On s'ennuie, on ne fait absolument rien à côté de la cheminée.
How does the negative ne ... rien work with the word absolument here?
Just like ne ... pas (not), the ne and rien wrap around the conjugated verb. Here, they wrap around fait (makes/does). When you add an adverb like absolument (absolutely), it usually goes right after the verb, giving us ne fait absolument rien (doing absolutely nothing). Notice that you drop the word pas completely when using rien.
Why is there an s' before ennuie?
s'ennuyer is a reflexive verb, which literally means "to bore oneself." In English, it is much more natural to say "to be bored." Because the subject is on, we use the reflexive pronoun se, which drops its "e" and becomes s' before the vowel in ennuie.
The translation says "We are bored", but doesn't on mean "one"?
We have à côté de la cheminée here. What happens if the thing we are next to is masculine?