Is it werk ze, werkze or werkse? Say it out loud, then it all sounds plausible. However, according to Genootschap Onze Taal there is only one correct word.
Work it is written in two words. This fixed combination consists of the imperative mood work and the personal pronoun ze.
This is how ze many more verbs can be added to them such as eat them, sleep them or cycle them!
Professor Peter-Arno Coppen already studied this issue in 1998 and wrote an article about it. According to Coppen, werk ze is a kind of abbreviation of 'work in the way that you like best and that gives you the most results'. The word ze stands for a much longer wish in which success is linked to 'as you are used to when you are at your best'. Expressions such as werk ze and eet ze are typically Dutch, for example, in Flanders this is not known.
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