Adapt means to take something and make it suitable for a specific use or situation. Adopt means to take something and make it one's own as is.
Examples:
- The key to success is often the ability to adapt.
- "Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Usage Notes:
- You can adopt a child or a custom or a law; in these cases you are making the object of the adoption your own, accepting it. If you adapt something, however, you are changing it.
("adapt/adopt," Paul Brians, Common Errors in English Usage, William, James & Co., 2003) - Adapted takes the preposition to (a use); for (a purpose); or from.
(Theodore M. Bernstein, The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage, Simon & Schuster, 1965) - Children are adopted by parents, and one normally refers to an adopted child but to adoptive parents, families, and homes. When describing places, one can use either adopted or adoptive: She enjoys living in her adopted country. Detroit is their adoptive city.
("adopt," The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000)
Practice:
(a) We must _____ ourselves to changing circumstances.(b) "Morality is simply the attitude we _____ towards people whom we personally dislike." (Oscar Wilde)
