Comment by tempestn
12 hours ago
Wouldn't normally nitpick, but just in case it's helpful as an author - compound verbs that end in particles, like "set up", "break down", "log in", "check out", etc., are all two words when used as verbs. They each also have single, compound word versions, but those are the noun forms. So, you set up the page, and now the setup is done.
Thanx so much. Can you point where we can learn all this. These days it's hard to grab all that even when you read books a bit everyday
That I don't know. I don't have an English or linguistics background myself, it's just a common mistake I've noticed.
Ironically though, your reply has another similar one. You read books every day; reading books is an everyday activity for you.
AI chats are wonderful at that.
Write a sentence and ask it it is correct, if it is idiomatic, and to explain rules behind it.
Thank you
See also:
- set up [1] (notice that it's a verb)
- setup [2] (notice that it's a noun)
- Phrasal verbs [3]
Unfortunately, I'm afraid it's mostly stuff one needs to know by heart, but I think it's often that the noun is the one that is all in one word and the verb is the phrasal one (composed of "base" and the particle, in several words). Note: I'm not a native English speaker.
[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/set_up#English
[2] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/setup
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrasal_verb
Essentially if you’re using it as a noun it’s “setup”, if you’re using it as a verb it’s “set up”.
I think this kind of feedback is a good example of something an LLM is very good at suggesting. I regularly feed my important raw texts to an AI, and ask it not to rewrite it (!), but to give me line by line grammatical, style and tone advice, point out uncommon language, idioms or semantics etc. Also, they are good at fact checking, they can quickly verify each statement against web sources etc.
On the other hand, LLMs are very bad writing partners, they are sycophants and very rarely give substantial criticism, the kind of feedback an editor would give and is mentioned in the article.
This is the substantial service an editor will provide going forward in the AI slop era, where everyone and their grandma will self publish some personal masterpiece: a contact with the real world and setting the bar high, to the point you need to struggle to achieve the required quality. Writing a book, especially finishing a great book, is not supposed to be enjoyable, it's hard, grueling work.
Is it “set up the page” or “set the page up”? Or both?
Either one works. And that's actually a way to help remember the general rule. If you can rephrase it split up like that (ie. 'set it up'), then that's the multi-word, verb form.
Edit: actually, either way works, except when using with a pronoun. So, you can 'set it up', but you can't 'set up it'.
> So, you can 'set it up', but you can't 'set up it'.
You can, however, set up us the bomb.
thankyou allot!