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It is easy to confuse adverse and averse but their meanings are totally different.
Adverse means unfavorable, contrary or hostile, and can never be applied to humans. You often hear it used in the term ‘adverse weather conditions’, a phrase which is best avoided in favor of ‘bad weather’.
Averse means unwilling or disinclined or loath and is always followed by the preposition ‘to’. It applies to a person and is used like this: ‘He was averse to discussing the conference’. Of course, it would be just as easy to say. ‘He didn’t want to discuss the conference’.
Overuse of both averse and adverse is likely to sound pompous. It’s always better to keep it simple.
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Averse can also follow a behavior to categorize people. For example, someone who invests in only very secure investments would be considered a risk averse.
In other words, disclined to take risks – nice example, Joe
Good day gentlemen,
this lesson provide a clear distinction in the Queen’s language, and I really appreciate were you to continued your good work.
Good luck
I detected some adverse grammatical conditions present in T. Daoda Carlon’s response, however I am averse to pointing it out. (So this is painful for me on a couple of levels.)