wife/girlfriend...advance/further

New2grammar

The governer married his wife

Can't see anything wrong with this

I (got) married (to) my wife/husband x years ago. 

Wife is fine in all these contexts. We KNOW that she wasn't his wife when he married her ...but she is now his wife so it seems odd to refer to her as his girlfriend. I think most natives would use wife here.  think of it this way - if I talk about my mum when she was a little girl, I still call her my mum, even though she clearly wasn't a mother then.  If I am talking about someone's wife or husband, I still call them that, even when we are discussing a time when they weren't.

current wife ...yes, this could be used when someone has been married more than once, to show that it is the wife of the existing marriage and not any of the ex-wives, that we are talking about. It is a little 'pointed' though - it suggests that maybe she is only the latest in a long line, and her turn will come to be an ex-wife. It makes her sound a bit temporary ...but sometimes you want that effect.

Hi Nona

Many thanks.

It is clear now that 'current wife' refers to the fact that the man has married more than once and 'his current wife' refers to his latest wife.

Feebs wrote: You marry your girlfriend and are married to your wife.

Feebs has not responded to my latest post. It looks like he agrees that one marries one's girlfriend, who then becomes one's wife.

Nona, on the other hand,  thinks that 'one marries one's wife is fine' in all contexts, especially when the man marries more than once. Correct me if I'm wrong in my interpretation..

My search, using 'Oxford University' link yielded nothing on "He married his current wife."

Hi New2grammar,

Have you anything to comment about what I've said?