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J'allume la lampe pour faire un puzzle.

J'allume la lampe pour faire un puzzle.
I am turning on the lamp to do a puzzle.
From Lesson 111:Negative pronouns (ne... rien)·French

Questions & Answers about J'allume la lampe pour faire un puzzle.

How would I change this sentence to say 'I am turning on the lamp to do nothing'?
You would change pour faire un puzzle to pour ne rien faire. As you are learning with ne ... rien, when negating an unconjugated verb (an infinitive like faire), both ne and rien stay together directly before the verb.
Why do we use pour faire here instead of just faire?
In French, when you want to express the purpose of an action (meaning 'in order to do something'), you use pour followed by the infinitive form of the verb. So pour faire translates perfectly to 'in order to do' or simply 'to do'.
Is the word puzzle pronounced the same as it is in English?
It looks exactly the same, but it is pronounced with a French twist! In French, it sounds a bit like 'peuzl' using a French 'eu' sound (similar to the vowel sound in the English word 'sir' or 'surf').
Does the verb allumer only mean 'to turn on' for lamps?
Allumer originally means 'to light'. It is used for lighting a fire or a candle, but also for turning on anything that produces light or has a screen, like a lamp, a television, or a phone. To say 'to turn off' or 'to extinguish', you would use the verb éteindre.

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