Breakdown of Me lo dio antes de quedarse pobre.
de
from / of
dar
to give
me
to me / me (direct object)
lo
it / him (direct object)
Questions & Answers about Me lo dio antes de quedarse pobre.
Why use quedarse here instead of another verb of change like hacerse or volverse?
Why is quedarse in the infinitive instead of a conjugated form like se quedó?
In Spanish, when a verb immediately follows a preposition like de (as in the phrase antes de), it must be in the infinitive. Even though it translates to 'ending up' in English, you leave the verb as quedar and just attach the pronoun se to the end.
Who does the se in quedarse refer to?
It refers to the person who gave the item (he or she). The pronoun attached to the infinitive always has to match the person experiencing the change. If the sentence meant 'before I ended up poor,' you would change the ending to quedarme to match the speaker.
In Me lo dio, why does me come before lo?
When using double object pronouns, the indirect object (who receives the action, here me) always comes before the direct object (the thing being given, here lo). A helpful rule of thumb to remember this order is 'people before things.'