The similarity of these three words can be confusing. Adopt and adapt are verbs, while adept is an adjective or a noun.
ADOPT
Adopt means to take or acquire as your own. This can refer to adopting a child (which usually involves legal formalities) or adopting an animal as a pet.
It didn’t take long before they regretted having adopted a Great Dane.
You can also adopt, for example, a certain lifestyle, a strategy or a habit.
She had adopted a vegetarian diet.
Adopt is also used to say that one language has borrowed a word from another language.
From Swedish, English has adopted the word smorgasbord, meaning a buffet of hot and cold dishes.
ADAPT
Adapt means to modify, to adjust or become adjusted to new conditions, to make something suitable for a new use.
The spare room had to be adapted into a small office.
The film was adapted from a Pulitzer-winning novel.
Our dog quickly adapted to the new environment.
The corresponding nouns are adoption and adaptation.
ADEPT
As an adjective, adept means skilled, talented, good at doing something difficult, and as a noun it refers to an expert, somebody who is skilled or talented.
To everybody’s surprise, Grandma turned out to be adept at using a computer.
We all considered him an adept at cooking.
We all considered him an adept at cooking
In Swedish, adept means pupil, disciple or novice, beginner. Thus, in spite of the word having the same Latin background as the English one, the Swedish word has the opposite meaning.
Isolated and insulated both come from Latin insula, island.
The Latin word insulatus, made into an island, became isolato in Italian and both insulated and isolated in English.
The two English words have different meanings:
ISOLATED
Isolated means separated or set apart from others. You can be in a remote place without contact with anybody. Even with a lot of people around you at a party, you can feel isolated when you feel as if nobody notices you or makes contact with you.
You can also isolate something, identify, for example, a problem, in order to deal with it.
And scientists can isolate a virus from an infected host.
INSULATED
Insulated is used to indicate that something is covered or wrapped in a material that protects from loss of heat, an electric shock, etc.
Without being isolated, children that grow up with overprotective parents may be insulated against and unprepared for the harsh realities of life.
In my job as copyeditor I notice that writers tend to overuse different when they should write various instead.
Different, as you know, means that something is not the same as something else. One thing is different from another thing, or two or more things are different, not alike.
They have different models of sunglasses
Various implies that there is a variety among things; there are several different variants of something. Various is used before a plural noun about things that are of the same type but not all of exactly the same kind.
Various models and colours of sunglasses
Usually, the preposition from comes after different: Her latest novel is very different from anything she has written before. However, some writers prefer than after different. I would use than only with the comparative form: These two are more different than those.Different than is common in US English. Sometimes I also see different to, which seems to be more common in British English, but you should avoid using differentto in writing.
I recommend that you write different when you want to emphasise that there really is a difference. And write from instead of than or to! Write various to indicate that there are several types that are different from each other, that there is a variety of things.
It may be difficult to understand the difference between experience and experiences.
Experience has two meanings. The first is something that has happened to you. You might say, I had a strange experience on my way to work this morning.
This experience can take the plural form, experiences:
He talked about his bad experiences with cheap hotels. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you about my experiences in the Himalayas.
The other meaning of experience is what you have learnt from studies or work or from familiarity with something. This is what you would write in your CV. Experience in this case is an uncountable noun; it cannot be used in the plural.
You must have at least five years of teaching experience. In my experience, this is a very good car.
Experience of computing is always valued
Experience can also be a verb:
She experienced a sense of being valued for her brains and not only for her beauty.
What’s the difference between economy and economics?
ECONOMY
Economy comes from a Greek word meaning household management.
One definition (from investopedia.com) is that economy is ”a complex system of interrelated production, consumption, and exchange activities that ultimately determines how resources are allocated among all the participants”. A government may look at different ways to stimulate the economy.
Another definition of economy is careful management of available resources. We can talk about the fuel economy of a car.
(You can read about the adjectives economic and economicalhere.)
ECONOMICS
According to wikipedia.org, economics is “the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services”. Economics focuses on how economies work.
Adam Smith, ”the father of economics”, defined economics as the science of wealth.
Economics is usually divided into two disciplines:
Macroeconomics looks at how the economy as a whole works, how economies grow, change, and go through cycles. This can be about inflation, unemployment rates, monetary policy, foreign trade, etc.
Microeconomics looks at how supply and demand change over time, how people and businesses work, how people react to changes in prices, and how they make financial decisions.
We use grateful and thankful to express our thanks for something. Even if the two words are often used interchangeably, there is a difference between them. So, what is the difference between grateful and thankful?
GRATEFUL
Grateful is used to express our gratitude when somebody is kind to us or helps us in a way that will have a long-time effect.
Many thanks for helping us move into our new flat. We are so grateful. I am particularly grateful to my supervisor for her support and encouragement.
You can feel grateful when you are in a third-world country and realise that at home you have access to fresh air and clean water.
You can use grateful when you make a request in a formal letter:
I would be grateful if you would send me your latest brochure.
THANKFUL
Thankful is used when you feel relieved that something dangerous or unpleasant did not happen.
We had a burglary last week. I’m so thankful that my computer was not stolen. My brother had a nasty car accident. We are all thankful that he was not seriously injured.
A nasty car accident
You are also thankful when somebody has done something and the situation would have been much worse if they had not done anything.
To sum up, if you are grateful, you express gratitude to somebody for something they have done or given and if you are thankful, you feel relief or happiness over something.
The corresponding nouns are gratitude and thankfulness.
Both content and contents refer to something contained in something else. So, what’s the difference between them?
Content is uncountable; you cannot have it in the plural. It’s about the whole of something in something else.
The content of her speech really touched the audience. He has carried out research on the fat content of frozen food.
Content providers supply material such as text, images or music, for use on websites.
In a book, content refers to all the text in a book, but contents is the list, usually at the beginning of the book, that presents the chapters of the book and what page each chapter starts at.
Obviously, contents is a countable noun – we use the plural form. We can identify the separate parts or at least understand that they are there.
He put the flask to his mouth and drank the contents.
The nouns content and contents have the stress on the first syllable.
Content pronounced with the stress on the last syllable is an adjective. This content means happy, satisfied, pleased.
He seemed very content with his new job.
Content with the stress on the last syllable can also be a verb:
I was terribly hungry but realized that I had to content myself with some wine and a small canapé or two.
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