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01This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Saeed in Iran about words that can express the idea of duty.
02Here is Saeed's question.
03Dear Teacher, What is the difference between accountability, responsibility, and liability, especially from the point of view of law?
04Sincerely, Saeed I'm happy to answer this question, Saeed.
05All three of the words you ask about express the idea of duty.
06A duty is what a person must do because it is right and just.
07Let's begin with the noun responsibility.
08It is the most common word of the three, and we use it in everyday speech.
09However, when we talk about responsibility in legal terms, we are more likely to use the noun duty.
10We often refer to a task when we use the word responsibility or its adjective form responsible.
11The following examples show this.
12It is a pilot's responsibility to safely fly the airplane.
13A pilot is responsible for safely flying the airplane.
14When we want to say that only one person or subject is responsible for something, we can use the adjective sole, spelled S-O-L-E, or the adverb solely, as in these examples.
15Any mistakes are the sole responsibility of the writer.
16The writer is solely responsible for what he or she posts on social media.
17To express the idea that someone should agree to having a duty, we can use the expression, Take responsibility for, as in the following example.
18People must take responsibility for their own actions.
19We usually use the noun accountability to refer to possible penalties or bad results people may face if they do not do their duty.
20To do this, we use the verb hold before the adjective accountable, as in this example.
21The problem was that no one in the office was held accountable for their actions.
22We often use the noun accountability when discussing organizations.
23For example, if a business has a system of accountability, liability, that means the company's leaders and workers likely face a penalty if they do not carry out their duties.
24Liability is the most specific term of the three nouns.
25If someone or some group has legal liability, that means they have a duty that can be judged in a court of law.
26We use the adjective form liable to say that a person or group can face legal penalties because they were not as careful as they should have been.
27The following example shows this usage.
28The company was held liable for failure to warn about the danger of its product.
29Notice that we use the verb hold before the adjective liable, just like we do before the adjective accountable.
30There is also a common use of the noun liability in everyday speech that is not linked to legal issues.
31We can say that something or someone is a liability if they make bad results more likely.
32The following example shows this usage.
33That football player is getting old and is too slow.
34He has become a liability for the team.
35For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English?
36We want to hear from you.
37Send us an email at learningenglish at voanews.com And please let us know where you are from, too.
38And that's Ask a Teacher.
39I'm Andrew Smith.
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