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TOEIC Link Part 5 — responsible for vs in charge of: The Dependent Preposition Test

Part 5 tests responsible, in charge, and responsible to as if the preposition were interchangeable, but each collocation locks to one preposition — responsible for a task, in charge of a team, responsible to a manager. This guide gives the rule that the adjective/phrase selects its preposition, the business set TOEIC reuses, the gerund-follows-preposition consequence, and worked examples with distractor logic.

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The regional director is responsible ____ approving all expenditures above the departmental limit. The options offer for, of, to, and with, and because all four prepositions attach to adjectives somewhere in English, a candidate guesses by ear. The answer is for. responsible selects for when it names the task or area you answer for — no other preposition substitutes. TOEIC tests these because the adjective or fixed phrase dictates the preposition, not general logic, and the near-synonyms responsible for, in charge of, and responsible to each lock to a different one. This guide gives you the fixed set and the one consequence candidates forget: a gerund follows the preposition.

The rule: the head word selects one preposition

A dependent preposition is not chosen by meaning — it is fixed by the word in front of it. responsible, charge, and answerable all live in the same "who owns this" space, yet each demands its own preposition:

  • responsible for + task/area/person — responsible for the budget, responsible for training staff. for names what you own.
  • in charge of + task/team/area — in charge of the launch, in charge of the warehouse. of names what you run.
  • responsible to + person/authority — responsible to the board, responsible to her supervisor. to names whom you report to.

The three are not interchangeable: you are responsible for a project but responsible to a person, and you are in charge of a project but never in charge for it. The head word — responsible, charge — carries the preposition with it, exactly the way a collocation locks a partner in the make vs do collocation selection guide.

The business collocations TOEIC actually reuses

TOEIC draws from a small, stable set of workplace phrase + preposition pairings. Learn the pairs and the guessing stops:

  • responsible **for**, in charge **of**, responsible **to**
  • accountable **for** (a result) / accountable **to** (a person)
  • capable **of**, dependent **on**, reliant **on**
  • familiar **with**, consistent **with**, associated **with**
  • eligible **for**, subject **to**, entitled **to**
  • interested **in**, involved **in**, engaged **in**
  • committed **to**, opposed **to**, related **to**

Notice the two distinct senses that share a stem: accountable for a deliverable but accountable to a supervisor, mirroring the responsible for / responsible to split. TOEIC exploits exactly this overlap, offering both for and to when the sentence's object tells you which sense is meant.

The consequence candidates forget: a gerund follows the preposition

Because these are prepositions, a verb after them must be a gerund, not an infinitive. This is where a second point hides inside the same item:

  • responsible for **training** staff (not to train)
  • in charge of **coordinating** the event (not to coordinate)
  • committed to **reducing** costs (not to reduce)

If the blank sits before a verb — responsible for ____ the audit — the answer is conducting, not conduct or to conduct. The preposition forces the -ing form, the same mechanism that governs the whole look forward to family in the look forward to + gerund selection guide. One item can therefore test both the correct preposition and the gerund that follows it.

The sentence signals that pick the preposition

The object after the blank tells you which collocation is in play:

  • A task, project, or area follows → for (responsible) or of (in charge). responsible for the migration, in charge of logistics.
  • A person or governing body follows → to. responsible to the steering committee, accountable to the CFO.
  • The head word is in charge → the preposition is always of. There is no in charge for or in charge to.
  • A verb follows the preposition → use the gerund. responsible for approving, not responsible for approve.

Read the object first, match it to the sense (task vs person), and the preposition follows deterministically — no ear required.

Worked examples with the distractor logic

Example 1. The new coordinator will be in charge ____ scheduling all client site visits. Options: for / of / to / with. in charge locks to of, and scheduling is correctly the gerund after it. for, to, and with never pair with in charge.

Example 2. As team lead, she is responsible ____ the operations manager for weekly progress updates. Options: for / of / to / on. The object is a person (the operations manager), so the reporting sense applies: to. responsible for would need a task, not a person; of and on do not collocate with responsible.

Example 3. Each department head is accountable ____ meeting the quarterly cost-reduction targets. Options: for / to / of / with. The object is a result/deliverable expressed as a gerund, so for. accountable to would require a person; of and with are not accountable's prepositions. Note the gerund meeting confirms the preposition is doing its job.

The one-line habit that gets it right

Do not choose the preposition by feel. Identify the head word, then read the object. responsible + task = for; responsible + person = to; in charge = always of; accountable splits for a result / to a person. And whenever a verb follows the preposition, make it a gerund. That two-step check — head word selects preposition, preposition forces -ing — turns a guess into a rule, reinforcing the dependent-preposition discipline this cluster builds alongside the since vs for present-perfect guide.