Ik werk eraan in de bibliotheek.

I am working on it in the library.

Breakdown of Ik werk eraan in de bibliotheek.

• ik: I
• in: in
• werken: to work
• de bibliotheek: the library

Questions & Answers about Ik werk eraan in de bibliotheek.

What exactly does eraan mean, and why is it written as one word?

Eraan is a combination of er + aan and is called a pronominal adverb in Dutch.

• aan = the preposition on / about / to (as in werken aan iets = to work on something).
• er = a pronoun referring back to it / that / this / what we just mentioned.

So eraan literally means “on it”, but Dutch normally fuses er + aan into one word when er is referring to something previously mentioned.

Examples:

• Ik werk aan het project. – I work on the project.
• Ik werk eraan. – I work on it. (referring to that project)

Why do we use er here and not het (like ik werk het aan)?