diff --git a/lib/pagy/extras/i18n.rb b/lib/pagy/extras/i18n.rb
index 086b1688d..5791a52b3 100644
--- a/lib/pagy/extras/i18n.rb
+++ b/lib/pagy/extras/i18n.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,14 @@ module Frontend
     Pagy::I18n.clear.instance_eval { undef :load; undef :t } # unload the pagy default constant for efficiency
 
     alias_method :pagy_without_i18n, :pagy_t
-    def pagy_t_with_i18n(*args) ::I18n.t(*args) end
+    if Gem::Version.new(::I18n::VERSION) < Gem::Version.new('1.6.0')
+      def pagy_t_with_i18n(*args) ::I18n.t(*args) end
+    else
+      # keep 1.9 compatibility by hiding 2.0+ syntax in string
+      module_eval <<-RUBY
+        def pagy_t_with_i18n(key, **opts) ::I18n.t(key, **opts) end
+      RUBY
+    end
     alias_method :pagy_t, :pagy_t_with_i18n
 
   end