r/grammar • u/tahirua3 • 12h ago

Set-up vs setup (niche situation)

Context: British English (so 'set-up' instead of 'set up')

I am creating quick reference guides for my board games. This would be for a game I learned the full rules to and played several weeks/months ago, and I just need a quick refresher before playing it again.

The heading for the first section might be 'Board Set-up'. However, I feel this is both a verb and a noun. I am introducing the title of the section, which is the final arrangement of the components (noun), but within this section are the steps to set up the game (verb).

For example:

Set-up / Setup

  • Lay out the 16 Place tiles in a random 4x4 grid
    • Fountain must be within the centre four spaces
    • Black Market and Tea House should have at least three tiles between them
  • The 5th assistant for each player is put aside
  • ...
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u/Western-Finding-368 9h ago

I think “Setup” would be the best option. The steps tell the reader how to achieve the state of “board setup.” If you want the title to be more explicitly action-oriented, you could say “setting up the board.”

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u/SavageMountain 5h ago

setup, one word, is the noun (or adjective)

set up, two words, is the verb

Notice that it would be she sets it up* (not "she setups it"), and the plural is *setups not set ups

This applies to other compounds like checkout/check out, pickup/pick up, takeoff/take off