Let's talk about emotions.

Le emozioni are "the emotions." That's a true cognate, but the Italian adjective emozionato doesn't have a true cognate.

Let's say you have to talk in front of the class, you have to play a solo in the next student concert, or you're receiving an award. What's the feeling you have?

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In English, we would probably use the adjective "nervous." But the adjective we naturally think of in Italian, nervoso, is more about being irritable, in a bad mood. When you are nervous about doing something new, difficult, exciting, the Italian adjective we're looking for is emozionato.

So emozionato can have a somewhat negative connotation in the sense that you try not to let your emotions get the better of you, yet your voice trembles, you get butterflies in your stomach...

"Nervous" is the closest we can get in this sense. It's when your emotions get the better of you in a negative way.

Ho messo il mio vestito migliore per l'occasione

I put on my best outfit for the occasion

e sono in anticipo di un paio di minuti,

and I'm a couple of minutes early,

tanto per essere sicura. Sono molto emozionata.

just to be sure. I'm very nervous.

Captions 2-5, Italiano commerciale - Colloquio di lavoro

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The funny thing is that emozionato also means "excited," in other words, a positive emotion. It's not always crystal clear what someone means when they use emozionato, as in the previous example, where Arianna might have been more excited than nervous. We can only guess from the context. In the following example, Adriano may be both nervous and excited, since the baptism of his baby boy is about to take place in a very special chapel in Palermo.

Con tutti i nostri parenti, festeggeremo questo giorno importante

With all our relatives, we'll celebrate this important day

nella Cappella Palatina di Palermo. Io sono molto emozionato.

in the Palatine Chapel of Palermo. I'm very excited.

Captions 21-23, Adriano - Battesimo di Philip

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Nervoso, on the other hand, often has to do with "stress," an English word that has become ubiquitous in Italian, too.

Stressato. Nervoso.

Stressed. Irritable.

Caption 17, Marika spiega - Le emozioni

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When someone is nervoso, you tiptoe around so they don't snap at you. You don't want to get on their nerves. In fact, Italians use il nervoso as a noun to mean "nerves," as in:

Mi fa venire il nervoso.
He gets on my nerves.
He irritates me.

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For more about emotions, see this video.

This week, Arianna has her job interview for a marketing position. It turns out that her potential employer thinks she would be very suitable for the job. Ottime notizie (great news)! But the Italian word for “suitable” isn’t so easy to guess.

Be' Arianna, Lei mi sembra che sia proprio adatta a questo posto.

Well, Arianna. You seem very suitable for this position.

Caption 52, Italiano commerciale - Colloquio di lavoro

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So the adjective is adatto. We use it to say “suitable” as above, “fitting,” “appropriate,”  “ideal,” or “right,” also when speaking in the negative as in the following example.

Anche se, certo, non è il momento adatto.

Even though, naturally, it's not the appropriate moment.

Caption 8, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP9 - Morte in paradiso

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When you’re looking for the right word in Italian, you can say,

Non trovo la parola adatta.
I can’t find the right word.

or,

Non è proprio la parola adatta, ma forse si capisce.
It’s not really the right/appropriate word, but maybe you get my meaning.

There is a verb that is a close relative: adattare. The basic meaning of this verb is “to make something become suitable.” So you can adapt something, with the transitive form ofadattare, and that something becomes adatto (suitable).

Per cui ho sempre visto fare grandi cose

So I've always seen them do great things,

adattate poi alla cucina del mercato.

adapted, subsequently, to the cuisine of the marketplace.

Caption 40, L'arte della cucina - La Prima Identitá

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The reflexive form takes a preposition, much like the English.

Mi sono adattata fin da subito alla cucina italiana.
I adapted to Italian cuisine right away.

A verb often becomes an adjective by way of its past participle. Let's take, for example, the verb pulire (to clean). The past participle is pulito (cleaned). We can say ho pulito il bagno (I cleaned the bathroom/I've cleaned the bathroom), il bagno è stato pulito (the bathroom was cleaned), or il bagno è pulito (the bathroom is clean). In Italian, the adjective pulito (clean) is identical to the past participle pulito (cleaned), and comes from the verb.

But with adatto and adattare, it's different. It's just something to remember.

In a nutshell:

Adjective: adatto (suitable)
Verb: adattare-adattarsi (to adapt), with its regular past participle, adattato (adapted).

Just for fun:

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To set the scene: You arrive in your new apartment with all your furniture from the old apartment, especially one of your favorite pieces, a bookcase.

Non è lo spazio più adatto a questa libreria. Bisognerebbe fare adattare la libreria da un falegname. Io l’avevo già adattato una volta ad uno spazio molto più irregolare di questo, ed ora, temo che non si adatterà più. Sarà meglio comprare una libreria componibile che si adatti a qualsiasi spazio.  

It’s not an ideal space for this bookcase. We would have to have the bookcase adapted by a carpenter. I had already adapted it once to a much more irregular space, and now, I’m afraid I won’t be able to adapt it ever again. It might be better to buy a modular set of shelves that adapts to any space.