Grammar fix
immediate family
close relatives
Your immediate family includes your closest relatives, like your parents, children, brothers, and sisters, but not your aunts, uncles, or cousins.
Hear it in context
Notice where the phrase sounds natural.
- Only my immediate family came to the small wedding ceremony.family
- In my culture, people are very close to their immediate family, and we usually live together or visit each other often.IELTS speaking
Fix the pattern
Pattern: immediate family (noun phrase); someone's immediate family
WrongOnly the immediate families are invited.
RightOnly immediate family are invited.
'Immediate family' is collective/uncountable here — no plural 'families' for one person's relatives.
Patternimmediate family (noun phrase); someone's immediate family
Use it right
Choose the version that sounds natural in speech.
'Immediate family' is the standard set phrase. 'Closest blood relations' is clunky.
Build natural chunks
Words that usually travel with it.
immediate familyonlymembers ofclose toextended family
Don't confuse it
Contrast with 'extended family', which includes aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.