动词 adapt 与 adopt 往往造成混淆；原本想表达的是 adapt的意思、却误用成 adopt，此类误用尤其常见，并且会造成一种严重问题，因为这两个动词表达的意思完全不同：adapt 的意思是针对特定目的而作出适当的改变或作出适当的改变以适应特定环境，而 adopt 的意思则是选用或接受（即采用）。[1] 这两个动词的语义差异可通过以下例句加以区别。
- We adopted this indirect measurement technique for use in in vitro experiments.
- We adapted this indirect measurement technique for use in in vitro experiments.
此处的 adapt 与 adopt 都是正确的用法； 不过，两个句子表达的意思明显不同。在例句 (1) 中，adopted 纯粹只表示这项“测量技术”被应用于“体外实验”，没有任何其它特殊意义。相反，例句 (2) 中的 adapted 则暗示，为了能使之应用于所讨论的实验，这项技术特别针对前述实验进行了修改及准备，其目的是使该项技术发挥最大效力。
以下，我将举例说明最常见的 adopt 误用情形及其正确用法。
- We adopt the model of Webber et al. by replacing the unidirectional intergenerational transfer mechanism with a self-adjusting bidirectional mechanism.
- This perturbative analysis is adopted to investigation of the physical realizability problem.
(3) We adapt the model of Webber et al. by replacing the unidirectional intergenerational transfer mechanism with a self-adjusting bidirectional mechanism.
(3’) We adopt the model of Webber et al., first generalizing it by replacing the unidirectional intergenerational transfer mechanism with a self-adjusting bidirectional mechanism.
(4) This perturbative analysis is adapted to investigation of the physical realizability problem
(4’) This perturbative analysis is adopted for investigation of the physical realizability problem.
For detailed discussion, see Chapter 4 of
グレン・パケット：『科学論文の英語用法百科〈第1編〉よく誤用される単語と表現』（京都大学学術出版会，2004）.
[1] adopt 还有其它意义，不过都与此处讨论的误用情形无关。
