English Translation
She had a happy marriage with a certain teacher in September.
does とある used in this context mean basically the same as ある?
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@ericaw
とある and ある are “a certain” and “a”, respectively. They are interchangeable but とある has some extra connotations.
とある教師と結婚した sounds like the speaker intentionally hiding the identity of the groom. For example, she is a criminal and finally caught, but her new husband wasn’t involved in her illegal act. In this case, media reports might use とある in order to respect the husband’s privacy.
Or, とある is more frequently used in old fairytales. For example, “once upon a time, an old woman lived in the village. She was…” — in such a narrative sentence, you may find とある老婆.
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