Grammatical Range: Four Complex Sentence Patterns Worth Memorising

Candidates who are told to use complex sentences usually respond by making their sentences longer. They join three ideas with and, add which somewhere in the middle, and hope the length counts as range.

It does not. Grammatical Range and Accuracy is one of the four IELTS writing criteria, and it measures two things at once: how many different structures you can use, and how often you use them correctly. A long sentence with one repeated structure scores on neither. A short sentence with a correctly used structure scores on both.

This post gives four patterns. Each one is shown twice, once used correctly and once pushed too far, because the second version is the one that costs marks.

What range actually means

The public band descriptors describe range and accuracy together, which is why pushing one down usually pushes the other down too.

Read the band 7 line carefully. It asks for two things: a variety of complex structures, and frequent error-free sentences. Most candidates chase the first half and lose the second. The safest route to band 7 is a small number of patterns you can produce accurately every time, not a large number you half remember.

Four patterns are enough. Here they are.

Pattern one: the conditional

A conditional sentence links a situation to its consequence. It is useful in every essay that proposes a solution, because a solution is a claim about what would happen.

Correct.

If governments raised the tax on fuel, fewer people would drive to work alone.

The structure is fixed: if plus past simple, then would plus the base verb. Learn it as one unit.

Overreaching.

If governments would have raised the tax on fuel, fewer people will be driving to work alone which is a benefit for environment.

Three errors in one sentence. Would have does not belong in the if clause. The tenses no longer match. The relative clause is attached to nothing clear, and the article before environment is missing. This is the band 5 line in action: the complex attempt is less accurate than the simple sentences around it.

When to use it. In your solution paragraph, once. Not three times.

Pattern two: the relative clause that adds information

A relative clause lets you add detail without starting a new sentence.

Correct.

Cities that invested early in cycle lanes now report lower levels of traffic congestion.

The clause that invested early in cycle lanes defines which cities. There is no comma, because the clause is essential to the meaning.

Correct, with a comma.

Amsterdam, which began building cycle lanes in the 1970s, now has more bicycles than cars.

Here the clause adds extra information about a city already identified. It takes commas, and it uses which rather than that.

Overreaching.

Amsterdam which began building cycle lanes in the 1970s and which has more bicycles than cars that is a good example that other cities should follow it which shows the benefit.

Four relative clauses chained together, and the sentence never reaches a main verb the reader can hold on to. Length has replaced structure.

The rule to remember. One relative clause per sentence. If you need a second piece of information, use a second sentence.

Pattern three: the concession

A concession admits the other side before you disagree with it. It is the single most useful pattern in an opinion essay, because it shows the examiner you have considered the counter-argument, which is what Task Response asks for.

Correct.

Although online courses cost less than university tuition, they rarely provide the professional contacts that a campus offers.

The pattern is: Although plus a full clause, comma, then a full clause. Both halves must be complete.

Also correct, and worth varying with.

While remote work reduces commuting time, it makes new employees harder to train.

Overreaching.

Although online courses cost less than university tuition, but they rarely provide the professional contacts.

Although and but do the same job, so using both is one too many. This is one of the most frequent errors in IELTS writing, and it is easy to remove.

When to use it. Once in each body paragraph, or once in the introduction to set up a partly agree position.

Pattern four: the participle opening

A participle clause puts the reason or the timing at the front of the sentence, and it is the pattern that most reliably reads as band 7 or above.

Correct.

Faced with rising rents, many young people now remain in the family home until their thirties.

Correct.

Having completed a degree that is not connected to their work, many graduates question the cost of it.

The subject of the participle clause must be the same as the subject of the main clause. In the first sentence, the young people are the ones faced with rising rents. That is the whole rule.

Overreaching.

Faced with rising rents, the government should build more housing.

Read it literally. It says the government is faced with rising rents, which is not what the writer means. This is called a dangling participle, and it is a real error, not a stylistic preference. If the subjects do not match, write a normal sentence instead.

Using the four together

Here is a body paragraph that uses all four patterns once, and nothing else.

Although public transport is cheaper than driving, many commuters still use their cars every day. Cities that have solved this problem usually did so by making the alternative faster rather than by making driving more expensive. Faced with a bus that takes fifty minutes and a car journey that takes twenty five, most people choose the car regardless of price. If the bus route were given a dedicated lane, the same commuter would make a different choice.

Four sentences. Four different structures. No sentence is longer than about thirty words. Every one of them is error-free, and error-free sentences are what the band 7 descriptor asks for.

Two habits that undo the work

Comma splices. Two complete sentences joined by a comma is an error, not a complex sentence.

Traffic is increasing, the government should act.

Fix it with a full stop, a semicolon, or a joining word: Traffic is increasing, so the government should act.

Run-on chains. Three ideas joined by and is one simple sentence wearing a long coat. Split it.

Do this today

Take one body paragraph from your last essay. Rewrite it so it uses each of the four patterns exactly once, in any order, and so no sentence is longer than thirty words. Then read it aloud. If you lose the thread of a sentence while reading it, the examiner will too, and the fix is a full stop rather than a comma.

Repeat this with three paragraphs over the next week. Four patterns produced accurately under exam pressure are worth more than twelve patterns you can only produce with a dictionary open.

If you want to see which criterion is currently limiting your writing, paste an essay into Bandly for an estimated band on each of the four criteria with the reasoning behind each estimate. The estimates come from software rather than a human examiner, so use them to decide what to practise rather than to predict a result.