Unit 17: Additional grammatical structures

17.3 Placement of Object Pronouns in Old Spanish

One occasionally sees in literature and in old or formal writing an object pronoun attached to, rather than preceding, a main conjugated verb in a sentence:

Al verme, volvióse pálido Upon seeing me, he turned pale.
Pidióme el jarro de agua y díselo… He asked me for the jug of water and I gave it to him…
(Lazarillo de Tormes, Anonymous, 1554)
Y el mozo díjole que según él cuitaba, decían verdad. And the boy said that according to what he thought, they were speaking the truth.
(Don Juan Manuel, El Conde Lucanor, 1282-1348)

The above would normally be expressed as:

Al verme, se volvió pálido.
Me pidió el jarro de agua y se lo di…
Y el mozo le dijo…

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