Après le travail, nous nous installons souvent près de la fenêtre pour lire un peu.

Because s’installer is a reflexive verb here.

• The first nous is the subject pronoun: we
• The second nous is the reflexive pronoun: ourselves

So nous nous installons literally means we seat ourselves / we settle ourselves, but in natural English it is usually just we settle down or we get comfortable.

This pattern is normal with reflexive verbs:

• je me lève = I get up
• tu te couches = you go to bed
• nous nous installons = we settle down

In this context, s’installer means something like:

• to settle down
• to get comfortable
• to sit down and make oneself comfortable
• to set oneself up somewhere

So here it suggests that after work, we usually settle in near the window in order to read a little.

It is not just the basic idea of sitting. It often includes the idea of getting into a comfortable position or arranging yourself in a place for some activity.

French usually uses an article in expressions like this, where English often does not.

So:

• après le travail = after work
• literally: after the work

This is very common in French:

• avant le dîner = before dinner
• à la maison = at home
• à l’école = at school

Even when English drops the article, French often keeps it.

Souvent is an adverb, and in simple tenses French adverbs often come after the conjugated verb.

So:

• nous nous installons souvent = we often settle down

That is a very normal word order in French.

Compare:

• je mange souvent ici = I often eat here
• il arrive parfois en retard = he sometimes arrives late

English adverbs are often more flexible, but French tends to place them in more fixed positions.

Both can mean near or close to, but près de is usually the most natural choice for physical location.

• près de la fenêtre = near the window

Proche de can also mean physical closeness, but it is often a bit more general or abstract:

• proche de l’école = close to the school
• être proche de quelqu’un = to be close to someone emotionally

In this sentence, près de la fenêtre is the most natural way to say near the window.

Because the expression is près de = near.

So the full structure is:

• près de + noun

Since fenêtre is feminine singular, de + la fenêtre stays de la fenêtre.

Examples:

• près de la porte = near the door
• près du bureau = near the desk
• près des enfants = near the children

Notice the contractions:

• de + le = du
• de + les = des

But de + la does not contract.

Because after pour, French normally uses the infinitive when the subject is the same.

Here, the people who settle down are also the people who read, so French uses:

• pour lire = to read / in order to read

This is the standard structure:

• Je viens pour aider. = I’m coming to help.
• Nous sortons pour acheter du pain. = We’re going out to buy bread.

You would use pour que + subjunctive when the subject changes:

• Je viens pour que tu m’aides. = I’m coming so that you can help me.

Un peu means a little or for a bit.

In this sentence, lire un peu means:

• to read a little
• to read for a while
• to do a bit of reading

It softens the action and makes it sound casual or moderate, not like a long serious reading session.

Compare:

• lire = to read
• lire un peu = to read a little

Because French, like English, often uses the present tense for habitual actions.

So nous nous installons souvent means:

• we often settle down
• something we do regularly

This is called the present habitual.

Other examples:

• Je prends le bus tous les jours. = I take the bus every day.
• Le soir, ils regardent la télé. = In the evening, they watch TV.

So the present tense does not only mean right now. It can also describe routines and repeated actions.

Because the subject is nous.

The verb s’installer in the present tense is:

• je m’installe
• tu t’installes
• il/elle s’installe
• nous nous installons
• vous vous installez
• ils/elles s’installent

So installons is the correct nous form.

A learner might confuse it with installent, but that form is for ils/elles.

Yes. Après le travail is a time expression, and it has been placed at the beginning to set the scene.

French often does this:

• Après le travail, ...
• Le soir, ...
• Le dimanche, ...

It works much like English:

• After work, we often...

You could also place it later in some contexts, but sentence-initial position is very common and natural.

The comma separates the introductory time phrase from the main clause.

So:

• Après le travail, = introductory element
• nous nous installons souvent... = main clause

This is similar to English punctuation:

• After work, we often settle down...

In French, commas with short introductory phrases can sometimes vary depending on style, but in a sentence like this, the comma is perfectly normal and helpful.

If you removed the reflexive structure, the meaning would change.

For example:

• Nous installons souvent... usually means we install something
• Nous nous installons souvent... means we settle down / we get situated

So the reflexive pronoun is important because it shows that the action is being done to ourselves, not to some object.

That is why nous nous installons does not mean we install. It means we settle ourselves in.

A natural pronunciation would sound roughly like:

• prè d’la feunètr

A few useful points:

• près ends in a sound like prè
• in fast speech, de la often gets reduced a bit, almost like d’la
• fenêtre has the accented ê, and the final e is not strongly pronounced

You do not usually make a strong pause between these words. French tends to link them smoothly:

• près de la fenêtre

Yes. In practice, it can suggest either:

• quantity: read a little
• duration: read for a bit

Very often un peu is deliberately vague in this kind of sentence. It simply gives the idea of a modest, relaxed amount of reading.

So a learner should understand it as a natural, everyday expression rather than trying to force a very exact distinction.