Grammar
The cheapest route from simple sentences to complex ones. With an error correction exercise.
Relative clauses in IELTS are the fastest way to add the complexity that Grammatical Range and Accuracy asks for. They join two ideas into one sentence without any of the risk that comes with inversion or unusual conditionals.
They also carry a punctuation rule that decides meaning rather than style, and getting that rule wrong is counted as a grammar error, not a typographical one.
The rules
Six points, including the comma rule that changes meaning.
Who for people, which for things, that for either in a defining clause, whose for possession, where for places and when for times.
Students who study abroad often struggle at first. The clause says which students you mean, so removing it would change the sentence, and no commas are used.
My brother, who lives in Sydney, works in construction. The clause adds extra information about someone already identified, and it must be enclosed in commas.
Never repeat the object. The book which I read it was long is wrong, because which already is the object. Also, that cannot introduce a non-defining clause: use which after a comma.
When the relative pronoun is the object of the clause, drop it: the course I took, the people we interviewed. This is normal written English, not informality.
People living in cities means the same as people who live in cities, in three words fewer. This is a genuine Band 7 structure and it is easier than it looks.
Method
Six ways this earns marks under Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
Find two adjacent sentences about the same noun and merge them. One relative clause per paragraph transforms a page of simple sentences.
Punctuation is assessed under the same criterion as grammar, so a missing comma in a non-defining clause is not a small matter.
Families whose income falls below the poverty line is precise and compact, and it is underused by almost every candidate.
Turn people who live in cities into people living in cities once per essay. It reads naturally and demonstrates control.
Three relative clauses in one sentence produces something nobody can follow. Range means variety of structure, not length.
If what remains still makes sense on its own, the clause is non-defining and needs its commas.
Practice
Each sentence contains one error. Choose the correction.
Read the whole sentence before you choose. Every option below is a real form of English, so the question is not which word exists but which one this sentence needs.
This is how examiners see your writing: not as rules broken, but as sentences that do or do not work.
1Correct the error: The report which I read it last week was very detailed.
Delete it. Which is already the object of read, so adding it gives the verb two objects. This is one of the most frequent errors in the whole structure.
2Correct the error: My university, that was founded in 1965, has around twenty thousand students.
Which was founded. That cannot introduce a non-defining clause. After a comma, use which for things and who for people.
3Correct the error: Students, who arrive late, are not admitted to the examination room.
Remove both commas. The clause says which students you mean, so it is defining and takes no commas. With the commas, the sentence claims that all students arrive late.
4Correct the error: Families who income is low receive additional support.
Whose income. Whose is the possessive relative pronoun, and it works for organisations and things as well as people.
5Correct the error: The city where I grew up in has changed enormously.
Delete in. Where already contains the idea of in. Either write the city where I grew up or the city which I grew up in, but never both.
6Correct the error: People who lives in rural areas often travel further to work.
Who live. The verb in the relative clause agrees with the noun the clause describes. People is plural, so the verb takes no final s.
That is normal, and it is the whole problem with grammar study. Recognising an error in a sentence someone has told you contains one is far easier than finding it in your own essay, where every sentence looks correct because you wrote it.
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Choosing the right option from four is not the same as producing the structure accurately under time in an essay.
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A defining clause identifies which one you mean and takes no commas. A non-defining clause adds extra detail about something already identified and must be enclosed in commas.
In a defining clause, yes. In a non-defining clause, after a comma, only which is possible.
When it is the object of the clause: the course I took. When it is the subject, it must stay: the course that changed my career.
They are the most reliable single contributor to range, but the descriptor asks for a variety of structures, so combine them with conditionals and complex sentences.
Yes. Punctuation is assessed under Grammatical Range and Accuracy, so it is treated exactly like any other grammar point.
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