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When anyone starts smoking, he/she "fire" the cigarette.
I am sure the "fire" word is not correct. so what should I say?
I tried using the dictionary to translate from my language to English, but all I got is:
"burn" the cigarette?
"grill" the cigarette?
which I am sure is not correct in English.
He or she lights a cigarette (cigar/pipe), unless we are talking about some cigarette that we want to reference as uniquely indentifiable, such as one that fell on the ground; in that case, use the.
When a person lacks matches or a cigarette lighter, he can ask someone "Do you have a light?"
You light a cigarette or just light up.
Note that this tracks with what you do to start a fire: you light a fire, or light the wood on fire.
A cigarette that is burning is a lit cigarette.
About lighting up—if you were to read, "George lit up and took a drag," you should understand this to mean he had lighted (or lit) a cigarette and then drew in air through it, taking smoke into his lungs. Despite not saying so, this unambiguously refers to a cigarette, unless context indicates otherwise.
