This is the girl TO whom I married or whom I married

Question

I came across the both sentences:

1. This is the girl whom I married.

2. This is the girl to whom I married.

Which one is grammatical? Please explain.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Whether you use to depends on whether the verb requires a direct or indirect object.

For example, you would say:

He is the man whom I saw at the market

The man is the direct object of the verb saw so you can't say to whom I saw.

But you can say:

He is the man to whom I gave the letter.

Because what you gave was the letter, not the man. You gave the letter to the man. The man is the indirect object.

So the question is: does marry take a direct or indirect object. This gets a bit tricky because although you marry someone, you get married to someone.

In this instance, you have a choice. You can say either:

This is the girl whom I married
or
This is the girl to whom I am married.