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En dehors du travail, il lit beaucoup.

En dehors du travail, il lit beaucoup.
Outside of work, he reads a lot.
From Lesson 255:Exclusion prepositions (sauf, à part)·French

Questions & Answers about En dehors du travail, il lit beaucoup.

The current lesson is about sauf and à part. How does en dehors de fit in?
En dehors de literally means 'outside of', but it is frequently used just like à part to mean 'apart from' or 'other than'. It is a very common way to express an exclusion, especially when talking about activities, routines, or time (like being outside of work hours).
Could I use à part instead of en dehors de in this sentence?
Yes! You could completely swap them and say À part le travail, il lit beaucoup. Both communicate that when he isn't working, he is reading. Notice that à part just takes the definite article (le travail), while en dehors de requires you to combine de and le into du.
Why does this sentence use du travail rather than just de travail?
The set phrase for 'outside of' is en dehors de. In French, when the preposition de is followed by the masculine noun le travail, they must contract. You can never say de le; it always merges to become du.
I always mix up how to conjugate lire (to read). Is lit irregular?
Yes, lire is an irregular verb. For il/elle/on, the present tense form is lit. A common trap for learners is assuming it follows regular -ir verb patterns, but it has its own unique forms, especially in the plural (such as nous lisons and ils lisent).

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