Breakdown of Wir stellen den Punkt jetzt zur Abstimmung.
jetzt
now
wir
we
zur
to the (zu + der)
stellen
to place / to put (upright)
Questions & Answers about Wir stellen den Punkt jetzt zur Abstimmung.
This sentence uses the active phrase zur Abstimmung stellen. How would we shift the perspective to say 'The point is up for a vote now'?
To shift the perspective from the people doing the action to the thing being acted upon, you swap the verb stellen (to put) for stehen (to stand). The sentence becomes: Der Punkt steht jetzt zur Abstimmung. This is a classic noun-verb support construction pairing, where stellen acts as the transitive version (doing something to an object) and stehen acts as the intransitive version (describing a passive state).
Why does German use stellen combined with a noun here instead of a simple verb like 'to vote'?
This is a Nomen-Verb-Verbindung (noun-verb support construction). While you could use the simple verb abstimmen by saying Wir stimmen jetzt über den Punkt ab, using the noun phrase zur Abstimmung stellen elevates the tone. It sounds much more formal and procedural, making it standard for official settings like business meetings, parliaments, or committees.
Why is the prepositional phrase zur Abstimmung instead of für die Abstimmung?
In German noun-verb support constructions, the prepositions are fixed by convention, and zu is highly common for expressing that something is being brought to a specific stage or process. zur is the mandatory contraction of zu and the dative feminine article der. You simply have to memorize zur Abstimmung stellen as a fixed block of vocabulary.