Hello Florent,

I apologize for interjecting my feeble attempts at explaining any Pali
problem, when I still don't understand many myself, but as I understand
it, "so" can act either as a personal or demonstrative pronoun. This
being the case it can be either "he, it, or that." However, it can also
be "the" when in English using a definite article would work better than
"it/that." So, since without the context "that man" sounds kind of
funny, "the man" is a better choice. Hopefully I have understood your
question.

Metta,

Alan


flrobert2000 wrote:

>Dear John,
>
>Should "so puriso" not be translated by "that man"? Would that
>sentence make sense without the "so" at all?
>
>
>
>>>Hiiyo arañña.m gato so puriso ahinaa da.t.tho mari.
>>>
>>>
>>I would translate this as:
>> Yesterday the man went to the forest, was bitten by a serpent and
>>
>>
>died.
>
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Florent
>
>
>
>
>