A friend of mine (we are both non native english speakers, french actually) is writing lyrics and came to me to have an opinion on a sentence, and I actually am not 100% sure about the good answer.
The lyrics go like this :
How could you convince the people?
When you don't even believe in it
The question was about how we could refer to said people in the first sentence.
The three propositions are :
- Him
- It
- Them
I would totally rule out "Him" because people is plural here. "It" would refer to an object, so it only leaves "Them" available.
Would someone care to elaborate on this?
Thank you all in advance :)
Answer
The pronoun you select must have an antecedent, i.e., a noun the pronoun refers to. Your readers (or listeners) will scan what they've read (or heard) to find a match suitable in number, gender, or person, or some combination.
It won't work because it's singular and neuter, which leaves out people and you respectively. You'll leave the audience wondering if the lyric shouldn't have been something like
Of altruism, how could you convince the people
When you don't even believe in it?
Him is out since it's masculine, singular, and third person, conflicting with plural people and second-person you. If you persist, the audience will be wondering if they missed something like
How could you think John could convince the people
When you don't even believe in him?
Just for fun and completeness, you can't have you be the antecedent unless you use a reflexive pronoun, since the believer and the believed in coincide:
How could you convince the people
When you don't even believe in yourself?
Them does the trick, third person and plural; it's a match for the noun people.
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