gets married to

Meanings

1. 1phraseintransitive

   becomes someone's husband or wife in a legal or religious ceremony.

   Grammar: Followed by "to" plus the person; the subject is the one who marries.

   Patterns

   • someone gets married to someone
   • gets married to someone in a place

   My cousin gets married to her partner in June.

   He got married to a doctor he met at university.

   Are you getting married to Sam this year?

2. 2phraseintransitivefigurative

   (of two things or ideas) becomes closely joined or combined.

   Grammar: Figurative; used of abstract things, not people.

   Patterns

   • something gets married to something

   In this design, old brick gets married to modern glass.

   The music gets married to the words in a surprising way.

Common combinations

get married to someone

She got married to an old friend from school.

get married in a church

They got married in a small church in the countryside.

get married young

In that region, many people get married young.

be married to someone

He has been married to Anna for ten years.

Synonyms and how they differ

wed

A formal or literary verb that takes a direct object: "She wed Tom."

marry

The plain verb; "marry someone" is more direct than "get married to someone."

tie the knot

An informal idiom for the same event; it does not name the partner.

Opposites

Word family

marriage noun

The state or ceremony of being husband and wife.

married adjective

Having a husband or wife.

marry verb

To take someone as a husband or wife.

Commonly confused: gets married to or marries to? gets married to or gets engaged to?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “gets married to”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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