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Question Why is there a table set up in many modern restrooms?

hirashin

Sempai
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8 Apr 2004
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Dear native English speakers,

Is the word "up" necessary in (a)? How about the others?
(a) Why is there a table set up in many modern restrooms?
(b) Why is there a table set in many modern restrooms?
(c) Why is there a table placed in many modern restrooms?
(d) Why is there a table put in many modern restrooms?

Thanks in advance.

Hirashin
 
A, C, and D are all about the same (there's a difference between "to set up" and "to place" or "to put", but it's basically unimportant in this context). Most people would be unlikely to pick D because "to put" is not commonly used in that tense.

B is different. To "set" a table refers to putting plates, eating utensils, and napkins on a dining table.

In all of these cases, I would be very confused because I've never seen a table in a restroom.
 
Thanks for the help, Julimaruchan. According to the textbook, such restrooms exist.

The text goes like this:
It is the same with many modern restrooms. They have space for a person in a wheelchair or a parent with a baby. There are rails for disabled people to hold, and there is a table on which a parent can change a baby's diaper.
 
Thanks for the help, Julimaruchan. According to the textbook, such restrooms exist.

The text goes like this:
It is the same with many modern restrooms. They have space for a person in a wheelchair or a parent with a baby. There are rails for disabled people to hold, and there is a table on which a parent can change a baby's diaper.
Very true. Modern restrooms have such tables. They are called changing tables. Although the typical style in institutional restrooms is not a table at all, it's a platform that folds out of the wall with no legs. These are called changing stations.
 
Also, "set up" and "put in" are the phrasal verbs for "assemble". "Put in" and "put" have different meanings so you would have to say something like "I've had a new oven put in, in the kitchen", not just "put" as in placed on the floor somewhere, although stating the location is usually unnecessary as it would usually be obvious where the item had been put in.
"Set" sounds like something has been primed, ready to start, like a bomb, a mouse-trap, or in "On your marks, Get set, Go!" to start a race. "Set up" though, would mean "to assemble".
I would say "put in in many modern restrooms" or just take out the verb entirely, be it "place", "set up" or "put in".
 
Thanks for the help, mdchachi and Michael2.
Michael2, I don't get it. Is it that "set up" means "assemble" and it sounds off here?
 
Since you're actually talking about changing tables, you need to clarify (no one calls a changing table simply a "table"; they don't look anything like tables after all). I would expect any question about changing tables from someone not familiar with them to be something like, "Why is there a gray thing on the wall that folds down into something that looks like a shelf in restrooms these days?" Note the use of the generic term "thing" (because anyone who doesn't know what it is wouldn't be likely to know a more specific word for it), and the description of what it looks like and what it seems to do.
 
Hirashin, "set up" is fine. I was expalining further why "set" would be wrong. "Set up" means "assemble" which would make sense here, but "set" would not make sense.
 
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