CHAPTER 9
Mixing up Words That Look the Same
In Chapter 8 we examined words that sound the same; in this unit, we’ll learn to tell apart words that look the same—like members of the same family that all have the same peculiar nose. Some of these words are pretty common. Others are words we read more often than we hear, so when it comes time to use one, we often confuse it with one of its close cousins. But even though the words look alike, they can’t do the same things in our sentences: just like two twins won’t do the same things if one happens to be a plumber and the other happens to be a ballet dancer.
97. Adapt vs. Adopt
Don’t Say: After one week with the kids, Quentin was already adopting to their behavior. Say Instead: After one week ...
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