Indirect Object Usage

[EstudianteDeEspanol7]

I am confused about the grammatical meaning of the indirect object in the following sentence:

María es la mujer con quien quería casarme. = María is the woman I wanted to marry.

However, the indirect object "me" seems to be confusing, as the translation "I wanted to marry" implies I wanted to marry TO her, and thus would seem to be María es la mujer quien quería casarse. Adding to the confusion is that quería is the same verb appropriate for both the subjects "I" and "Maria."

I guess the words "con quien" are supposed to clarify that "quería" refers to a different subject than in the first part of the sentence, and also I guess that "quería casarme" means that I wanted [María] to marry [to myself].

Still somewhat confusing...

[chileno]

If it helps any "con quien" = with whom

[wrholt]

Also, it's not so much that "me" is the indirect pronoun but that it's the "reflexive" pronoun.

Spanish has 2 related verbs: the intransitive verb "casarse [con alguien]" = "to get married [to someone]", "to marry [someone] (become a spouse)" and the transitive verb "casar" = "to marry (someone to someone else)".

"Casarse" is a pronominal verb: it MUST have an object pronoun that agrees with the subject. "Con [alguien]" is optional and identifies the person who has become the spouse of the subject.

As a transitive verb, "casar" requires direct objects that name the two people who have been married (or perhaps the two things that have been paired, such as socks or a cup and saucer).