A Funktionsverbgefüge is a verb and a noun working as one unit, where the noun carries almost all of the meaning and the verb carries almost none. “Etwas in Betracht ziehen” means to consider something; ziehen has nothing to do with pulling. That is the whole idea, and it is also the difficulty: you cannot work these out from the parts, and you cannot swap the verb for a similar one.
They belong to a specific world — the Sitzung, the Vermerk, the Positionspapier, the Vortrag, the Verhandlung. In those rooms they are not decoration; they are the register itself. Using a plain verb where German expects a Funktionsverbgefüge makes formal writing read like a school essay, and using one over coffee makes you sound like a circular from the council.
The twelve that matter most
| Funktionsverbgefüge | Plain verb | English |
|---|---|---|
| etwas in Betracht ziehen | erwägen | to consider something |
| etwas zur Diskussion stellen | diskutieren lassen | to put something up for discussion |
| etwas zur Sprache bringen | ansprechen | to raise a topic |
| etwas in Anspruch nehmen | nutzen, beanspruchen | to make use of, to claim |
| etwas zur Anwendung bringen | anwenden | to apply something |
| etwas zur Umsetzung bringen | umsetzen | to implement something |
| in Kraft treten | gelten (ab) | to come into force |
| Abhilfe schaffen | abhelfen | to put things right |
| einer Forderung Rechnung tragen | eine Forderung berücksichtigen | to take a demand into account |
| Aufschluss geben über (+ Akk.) | erklären, zeigen | to shed light on |
| von etwas Abstand nehmen | etwas unterlassen | to refrain from something |
| etwas auf den Prüfstand stellen | überprüfen | to put something to the test |
The verb is not free
This is the rule that everything else follows from. Each noun takes one particular verb, and no other verb of similar meaning will do. It is “in Betracht ziehen”, never “in Betracht nehmen”, even though nehmen is the more obvious choice and “take into consideration” is exactly what English says. Learn the pair, not the noun.
The article behaves the same way — it is fixed, and it is usually absent or contracted. “In Kraft” has no article at all. “Zur Diskussion” is zu + der, permanently welded. You cannot say “in die Kraft treten” any more than an English speaker can say “to come into the force”.
bringen or kommen — who is doing it?
Most of these come in pairs, and the pair is the single most useful thing on this page. One member is causative: somebody makes it happen, and it takes an object. The other is inchoative: it happens, with no agent named. German draws that line with the verb, so choosing the wrong one does not just sound off — it says something you did not mean.
| Somebody does it | It happens | English pair |
|---|---|---|
| etwas zur Sprache bringen | etwas kommt zur Sprache | to raise it / for it to come up |
| etwas zur Umsetzung bringen | etwas kommt zur Umsetzung | to implement it / to get implemented |
| etwas zur Anwendung bringen | etwas kommt zur Anwendung | to apply it / to be applied |
| etwas in Kraft setzen | etwas tritt in Kraft | to enact it / to come into force |
| etwas in Bewegung setzen | etwas gerät in Bewegung | to set it moving / to start moving |
Wir bringen den Vorschlag in der nächsten Sitzung zur Sprache.
We'll raise the proposal at the next meeting.
we do it — bringen, with an object
Der Vorschlag kam in der nächsten Sitzung zur Sprache.
The proposal came up at the next meeting.
it happened — kommen, no agent, no object
Die Verordnung tritt am 1. Januar in Kraft.
The regulation comes into force on 1 January.
treten, not werden — this is not a passive
Tipp · Because kommen and treten are intransitive, they have no passive. “Der Beschluss wurde zur Umsetzung gekommen” is not a clumsy sentence, it is an impossible one. If you need the passive, you need the bringen half: “Der Beschluss wurde zur Umsetzung gebracht.”
The cases and prepositions that catch people
The noun in a Funktionsverbgefüge often governs a case or a preposition of its own, and it is rarely the one you would guess from the English. These four are worth memorising as whole phrases, because each of them is a standing trap.
Der Vermerk trägt dieser Forderung Rechnung.
The note takes this demand into account.
Rechnung tragen takes the DATIVE — dieser Forderung, not diese Forderung
Wir nehmen von dem Vorhaben Abstand.
We are refraining from the plan.
Abstand nehmen von + dative, never zu
Die Zahlen geben Aufschluss über die Ursachen.
The figures shed light on the causes.
Aufschluss geben über + accusative
Ich nehme Bezug auf Ihr Schreiben vom 3. Mai.
I refer to your letter of 3 May.
Bezug nehmen auf + accusative — the opening line of half of German officialdom
Where the nominal part sits
The noun and its preposition travel to the end of the clause and stay together, behaving very much like the separable prefix of a separable verb. Once you see that parallel, the word order stops being a separate thing to learn.
Diesen Einwand ziehe ich durchaus in Betracht.
I do take that objection into consideration.
main clause: verb second, nominal part last
…, weil ich diesen Einwand in Betracht ziehe.
…because I take that objection into consideration.
subordinate clause: the whole unit sits at the end, noun before verb
Ich schlage vor, die Frage beim nächsten Mal zur Sprache zu bringen.
I suggest raising the question next time.
zu goes before the verb only — the nominal part does not move
Speaking: how they actually land in a meeting
Two thirds of the sets tagged with this grammar are Speaking sets, which surprises people: this looks like written German. It is not. In a Sitzung, a Verhandlung or the question round after a Vortrag, a Funktionsverbgefüge does a job that a plain verb cannot — it lets you be non-committal and precise at the same time.
“Ich ziehe Ihren Einwand in Betracht” concedes that you have heard the objection without conceding that you agree. “Können wir das zur Sprache bringen?” puts an item on the table without attributing it to anyone. That distance is why negotiation German runs on these, and it is why they pair so naturally with Konjunktiv II — “Wir könnten das durchaus in Betracht ziehen” is about as much room as one sentence can give you.
Wären Sie bereit, das Verfahren auf den Prüfstand zu stellen?
Would you be willing to put the procedure to the test?
Konjunktiv II + Funktionsverbgefüge — the standard polite challenge
Diesen Punkt würde ich gern zur Diskussion stellen.
I'd like to put this point up for discussion.
opens a topic without asserting a position on it
Davon würden wir vorerst Abstand nehmen.
We'd hold off on that for now.
a refusal with no one refusing
Common mistakes
✗Wir nehmen Ihren Einwand in Betracht.
✓Wir ziehen Ihren Einwand in Betracht.
The verb is fixed to the noun. English “take into consideration” pushes you towards nehmen, and German only allows ziehen here.
✗Der Vermerk trägt diese Forderung Rechnung.
✓Der Vermerk trägt dieser Forderung Rechnung.
Rechnung tragen governs the dative. The demand is not the object of the sentence — Rechnung is.
✗Das Gesetz tritt in die Kraft.
✓Das Gesetz tritt in Kraft.
The article is part of the fixed phrase, and here there is none. Adding one is as audible to a German ear as “come into the force” is to an English one.
✗Der Beschluss wurde zur Umsetzung gekommen.
✓Der Beschluss wurde zur Umsetzung gebracht.
kommen is intransitive and has no passive at all. If an agent is implied, you need the causative half of the pair — bringen.
✗Wir nehmen Abstand zu diesem Vorschlag.
✓Wir nehmen von diesem Vorschlag Abstand.
Abstand nehmen takes von + dative. The spatial “Abstand zu” exists, but it means physical distance, not declining something.
✗Die Zahlen geben Aufschluss von den Ursachen.
✓Die Zahlen geben Aufschluss über die Ursachen.
über + accusative. The noun brings its own preposition, and it is not the one the English translation suggests.
A closing warning about quantity. These are strong seasoning: two or three in a Vermerk sound authoritative, eight in a row sound like a parody of officialdom, and German writing guides complain about that as loudly as English ones complain about jargon. They also sit very close to nominalisation and to the passive alternatives — all three push the agent out of the sentence — so if you find a paragraph where nobody is doing anything at all, that is usually a sign to put one plain verb back in.