Meaning & use
your responsibilities
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Meanings
nounplural
The duties and tasks that you are expected to take care of.
Grammar: Usually plural when talking about several duties; the singular 'responsibility' refers to one duty or to the general idea of being accountable.
Patterns
- your responsibilities include something
- take on your responsibilities
- know your responsibilities
Your responsibilities include answering the phone and greeting visitors.
She wrote a list of her responsibilities before the interview.
The new manager explained everyone's responsibilities on the first day.
nounplural
The things you are accountable for, so that you must explain your actions or results.
Grammar: Often used with 'for': responsibility for a task or a mistake.
Patterns
- responsibilities for something
- share responsibilities
Parents share responsibilities for their children's safety.
He takes his responsibilities as team leader seriously.
Word forms
| singular | responsibility |
|---|
Common combinations
- daily responsibilities
- Feeding the animals is one of my daily responsibilities.
- main responsibilities
- The main responsibilities of the job are listed below.
- take on responsibilities
- She took on more responsibilities after her promotion.
- meet your responsibilities
- The company failed to meet its legal responsibilities.
- responsibilities include
- Your responsibilities include training new staff.
Synonyms and how they differ
- duties
- Very close in meaning, but 'duties' sounds more formal and often refers to tasks fixed by a job or law.
- obligations
- Stronger and more formal; it stresses that you must do something, often for moral or legal reasons.
- tasks
- Refers to individual pieces of work rather than the overall things you are accountable for.
Opposites
Word family
- responsible adjective
- Being the person who must deal with something or who caused it.
- responsibly adverb
- In a careful way that shows you can be trusted.
- irresponsible adjective
- Not showing enough care about your duties.
Commonly confused: your responsibilities or ability?
your responsibilities vs ability
'Ability' means the skill to do something; 'responsibility' means the duty to do it. You can have the responsibility for a job without yet having the ability.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase most naturally?
Choose one answer.
'Responsibilities' is plural, so the verb must be 'include' with no -s. Option B wrongly uses the singular verb form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “your responsibilities”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.