Have a successful and productive (working) day! 

[Dutch phrase of the week]
[werk ze]

Literally “werk ze” would translate to “work them” or “work it“, but there’s not really a suitable equivalent in English. We – the Dutch – use it to express a wish to our colleagues to have a successful and productive (working) day. The use of “werk ze” is quite informal. Sometimes you may also see “werk se”, which is a direct (Dutch) notation of how “werk ze” is pronounced.

There are other uses of imperative forms of verbs, combined with “-ze” or “-se”. Two examples:
– “Eet ze”: bon appetit / enjoy your meal.
– “Slaap ze”: good night.
It seems that mostly intransitive verbs can be combined with “-ze” or “-se”, to wish someone a successful execution of an activity. But it wouldn’t be Dutch if there were no exceptions to that rule 🙂

Examples:
– “Fijne dag!” – “Dankjewel, werk ze!” 
(“Have a nice day!” – “Thank you, have a good day at the office!”)

– “Schat, ik ben weg!” – “Okee lieverd, werk ze.” 
(“Honey, I’m out of here!” – “Okay, sweetie, have fun at work.”)

– “Werk ze!” – “Vandaag niet, ik heb de griep…” 
(“Have a good day at work!” – “Not today, I have the flu…”)

Expressions:
– “Een goed begin is het halve werk“: well begun is half done.

Related words:
– Werk: work [noun] [het werk, <no plural>].
– Werken: to work [verb] [werken, werkte, h. gewerkt].

Example:
– “Ik heb vandaag geen zin om naar mijn werk te gaan…”
(“I don’t feel like going to work today…”)

far out, great, fantastic  
[Dutch phrase of the week]

"Te gek" literally translates to "too crazy/absurd". In fact, you can use "te gek" literally, e.g. in "te gek om los te lopen", but this Dutch Phrase Of The Week is about the non-literal use: far out, or great.

If something is completely far out or absolutely great, you can say: "helemaal te gek".

Examples:
– "Wat vond je van Sanders optreden?" – "Te gek!" 
("What did you think of Sander’s performance?" – "Great!")

– "Wendy heeft een navelpiercing…" – "Te gek, makker!" 
("Wendy has a piercing in her belly button… " – "Far out, dude!")

– "Mijn relatie loopt op rolletjes! Geen gedoe deze keer…" – "Dat is helemaal te gek!" 
("My relationship goes smoothly! No fuss this time… "That’s absolutely fantastic!")

Related words:
– Gek: crazy [adjective].
– Geweldig: great, fantastic [adjective].

Example:
– "Frank heeft Marianne gevraagd met hem te trouwen." -"Helemaal te gek! Geweldig! Fantastisch! Supergaaf!"
("Frank has asked Marianne to marry him." – "Completely far out! Great! Fantastic! Supercool!")

– Gaaf: awesome, great [adjective].

What’s going on?
[Dutch phrase of the week]

This phrase is mainly used when something is wrong or out of the ordinary. If you just want to ask somebody what’s going on as in "what’s up?" or "how’s it going?" you’d say: "hoe gaat het?"

Note that you can also state that there is something out of the ordinary: "er is iets aan de hand".

"Aan de hand" literally translates to "on the hand". Don’t confuse "aan de hand" with "bij de hand" (at hand), or "bijdehand" (:quick-witted).

Examples:
– "Wat is er aan de hand op de pier? Ik zie heel veel vlaggen." 
("What’s going on at at the pier? I see a lot of flags.")

– "Kom niet dichterbij, of ik spring!!" – "Rustig, rustig, wat is er allemaal aan de hand?" 
("Don’t come any closer, or I’ll jump!!" – "Easy, easy, what’s going on?" Note that "allemaal" (:all) is used to indicate that all kind of things are possibly going on.)

– "Er is veel aan de hand in de financiële sector." – "Inderdaad, het beleid van de meeste banken is geen zuivere koffie…" 
("There’s a lot going on in the financial sector." – "Indeed, the policy of most banks can’t be trusted…")

Related words:
– Hand: [noun] [de hand, de handen].
– Gedoe: fuss, hassle [noun] [het gedoe, <no plural>].

Example:
– "Wat is er aan de hand?" – "Veel gedoe om niks, kan ik je zeggen."
("What’s going on?" – "A lot of fuss about nothing, I can tell you.")

– Aan: on [preposition].
– Ellende: misery, distress [noun] [de ellende, <no plural>].