User level: Level 1 (14 points)Clearly, most of us don’t know the difference between set up and setup! Why would Apple in its finite wisdom use two very similar words for different things? Then worst of all we don’t know why we need to know! Now I’ve been through so much rigamarole, I have no idea what I was trying to do in the first place!
Posted on Oct 8, 2026 3:32 PM
User level: Level 10 (242,520 points)Oct 8, 2026 3:39 PM in response to cherzart
"Set Up", two words refers to the act of configuring something or getting it ready to be used.
"Set up your iPhone."
"Setup". one word, is generally the collection of items or settings you configured for a particular purpose.
"What is your setup for streaming video games?"
Why this is relevant to you or where you think Apple uses the terms differently is not possible for me to say.
What trouble are you haveing exactly with "set up" and "setup"?
What are you trying to do, that is causing you issues?
User level: Level 10 (169,253 points)Oct 8, 2026 4:06 PM in response to cherzart
cherzart wrote:
Clearly, most of us don’t know the difference between set up and setup! Why would Apple in its finite wisdom use two very similar words for different things? Then worst of all we don’t know why we need to know! Now I’ve been through so much rigamarole, I have no idea what I was trying to do in the first place!
As the joke goes, English isn't a language, it's three languages set up 😉 in a trench coat, waylaying other languages for spare vocabulary and grammar. There’s ample debate about which three languages that might be. And the following sentence is valid English: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
As for documentation-related feedback, you can often provide that directly to Apple. There’s a “helpful?” line at the very bottom of many Apple support pages, and you can tap “no” next to it, and can provide some feedback to the technical writers.
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256372760