Set a fire vs Set up fire

The correct phrase is 'set a fire.' 'Set up fire' is not a common or correct phrase in English. 'Set a fire' is used to mean starting a fire or lighting a fire.

Last updated: March 25, 2024 • 990 views

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

"Set a fire"

This phrase is used to mean starting a fire or lighting a fire.

Examples:

He set a fire in the fireplace to keep the room warm.
The campers set a fire to cook their dinner.
The arsonist set a fire in the abandoned building.
Please don't set a fire in the forest.
The firefighters quickly responded to the call to set a fire break.

Show examples from the web [+]

Someone's figured out how to set a fire through the Internet.
Like a man who would be more than happy to set a fire for his landlord.
Boss, she set a fire.
She set a fire, Ted!
We also have another witness - Freddie Wall - who claims he advised you on the best way to set a fire.
You tried to set a fire to cover it up just like that other woman 15 years ago!
Mr. Gold agreed to support me in this race, but I didn't know that that meant he was going to set a fire.
It's one thing to sell flaws to FriendAgenda. It's another to walk around with detailed instructions on how to remotely set a fire.
Who better to set a fire than a fireman?
It is time to set a fire that will consume the owl kingdoms and take back what is rightfully ours!
Set a fire to burn the evidence.
But he did set a fire that killed his son.
Looks like somebody set a fire there.
They trashed the place, they set a fire.
But he did set a fire that killed his son.
The only reason this wackadoo hasn't set a fire in the last 15 years is because he's been locked up.
He could set a fire downtown and be in Skokie before the first bell.
Vanessa was afraid that Mia would set a fire at her party and hurt people, so she started calling Hauser to cancel it.
If conditions aren't right to set a fire, Or in this case, slash a throat, they'll move on.
Like an arsonist who won't set a fire if there's someone there To see him leaving while smoke is billowing out the windows.

This phrase is not correct in English.

"Set up fire"

Show examples from the web [+]

Cody had been trying to set up a cease-fire between the Jamesons and some of the other gangs.
In an interview published in the newspaper 'La Repubblica' on 28 August 2007, Commissioner Dimas said that Europe needed to set up a specialist fire-fighting task force.
Set up operations by the fire truck.
The easiest way for them to cover up this crime is to set up forest fires, and every summer thousands of hectares of Bulgarian forests are set on fire and burnt.
On 14 November 2011 the Swedish committee of inquiry set up to investigate the fire in reactor block 2 at the Ringhals nuclear power plant in spring 2011 published its findings.
Whoever set the fire ended up here.
Your assumption was whoever set the fire Ended up at Phil Driscoll's office.
5 - the need to set up a forest fire protection programme, with a view to developing a more prominent and better integrated pan-European culture of forest fire risk prevention and management, in order to complement current national instruments;
Calls upon the Commission to set up a European Fire Prevention Centre for the systematic study and introduction of new technical methods for the prevention and fighting of forest fires in the Mediterranean and other southern European countries;
New fires broke out in areas beyond the perimeter set up yesterday.
So maybe the truth is that they set the fire, she killed Wilden, and this set-up is her covering her own tracks.
I had the two machine guns set up to give him covering fire while he crawled up there.
He wants to set up a heavy machine gun in a ditch And open fire on the retreating Germans.
We should set up some kind of steady signal, like a fire, and keep it going all the time.
You set up a remote control, you can fire via laptop from anywhere in the world.
So maybe the truth is that they set the fire, she killed Wilden, and this set-up is her covering her own tracks.
Fire up the butane burners and set up the chafing dishes.
Finally, a fund should be set up for the protection of European forests and the prevention of fires.
As far as I know, funding from the European Union was used to set up and support an early warning system for the Sumatra Kalimantan region, to prevent such fires, such disasters.
With your permission, Colonel, as soon as your men step off, I'd like to try to insert some of my teams into one of these buildings along the M.S.R., set up an O.P. and support your men with more effective fire missions.

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Set a fire vs Set up fire

"Set a fire"

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