Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Dutch term or phrase:
je moet er met de neus opzitten
English translation:
keep a close eye on
Dutch term
je moet er met de neus opzitten
De meerwaarde voor X is duidelijk. Voor ons is het belangrijk te toetsen wat leeft op het vlak van performance management bij de ondernemingen. Wij willen het ‘out of the box’ denken rond performance management met academische ondersteuning stimuleren. De confrontatie met mensen van hoog niveau uit de leden-bedrijven, via onderzoek en actieve discussie, moet onderzoekswerk van hoog niveau opleveren. Om effectief te weten wat er gebeurt op het vlak van performance management **moet je er met de neus opzitten**.
'Stick your nose in' / 'get your hands dirty' don't quite convey the right image (!). Does he just mean you have to get closely involved or does the expression have some other meaning?
| 3 +7 | keep a close eye on |
Bruce Gordon
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| 4 | keep your nose to the ground |
Textpertise
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| 3 +1 | stay on top of it |
Kitty Brussaard
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| 3 +1 | to monitor closely |
Jack den Haan
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Non-PRO (1): writeaway
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Proposed translations
United Kingdom
Quality, deadlines and added value!
Native in: English
Works in: Dutch to English, Flemish to English
keep a close eye on
United Kingdom
Highest WWA rating in Europe for NL-EN
Native in: English 
Works in: Dutch to English, Hebrew to English
keep your nose to the ground
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Note added at 2 hrs (2009-02-08 11:57:29 GMT)
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Met je neus erop zitten is niet alleen beogen of bekijken. Je bent er helemaal op gericht om van de eerste indicaties van verandering meteen op de hoogte te komen. You are totally focussed on it and keep very close supervision and let nothing escape your attention. Much more intensive than "keep a close eye on". Also "op zitten" should be two words and not one.
| neutral |
writeaway
: but as even your ref suggests, this means to work hard, keep on working. So not the same meaning as the NL
30 mins
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No - it means to stay on top of things and stick with it like a bloodhoud. Combines two expressions one of which means being aware and the other being persistent.
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Netherlands
Business Language Solutions
Native in: Dutch (Variant: Netherlands)
Works in: English to Dutch, Dutch to English, Dutch
stay on top of it
Netherlands
Qualified engineer, translator & teacher
Native in: Dutch 
, English (Variants: US, UK)
Works in: Dutch to English, English to Dutch
to monitor closely
| agree |
Kitty Brussaard
: Dit is waar ik aan dacht voordat ik besloot 'to stay on top' in te brengen. Kan volgens mij hier ook heel goed!
1 min
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Bedankt Kitty.
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