it must be them/their passing by

[diamondcutter]

One morning as the giant was lying awake in his bed, he heard lovely music coming through the window. He thought it must be some musicians passing by.
(from an English textbook for junior high school students in China, co-published by DC Canada Education Publishing and Hebei Education Press)

I wonder if it’s OK for me to rewrite some musicians with an apostrophe as some musicians’.

And if I use a pronoun to replace some musicians, I wonder if both ‘them’ and ‘their’ are grammatically and idiomatically correct as follows:

He thought it must be them passing by.
He thought it must be their passing by.

All in all, I want to know if the 'passing' is a present participle or a gerund.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[jutfrank]

One morning as the giant was lying awake in his bed, he heard lovely music coming through the window. He thought it must be some musicians passing by.

Think a bit more about what this means. The giant has in mind a question: Who is playing that lovely music? (Or possibly: What is the source of that lovely music?—it doesn't matter which, as both questions lead to the same explanation.)

The explanation he comes up with is some musicians. The matter of whether they are passing by is not the primary thing here, but just a secondary part of the explanation. It is not the passing by which is the source of the music but the musicians. A good way to see this more clearly is by removing the -ing phrase. Does it make the same sense if you say He thought it must be some musicians? Yes, it does.

If you were to say some musicians' passing by, you would mean to suggest that the music is the result of their passing, not the result of their playing, which would be a very odd thing to think. If this were the focus you wanted to have, then you would not be able to remove the -ing phrase and still make the same sense.

 

[diamondcutter]

What about changing the original sentence like this?

1. He thought it must be some musicians, who were passing by.

2. He thought it must be that some musicians were passing by.

 

[jutfrank]

The sentence is fine as it is. There is no need to change anything.

 

[diamondcutter]

In #2, Jutfrank said: A good way to see this more clearly is by removing the -ing phrase. Does it make the same sense if you say He thought it must be some musicians? Yes, it does.

I think in the original sentence, the pronoun “it” refers to the music the giant heard. So “it must be some musicians” means “the music must be some musicians”. I’m afraid it doesn’t make sense. What do you say?

 

[Barque]

So “it must be some musicians” means “the music must be some musicians”.

The intended meaning is "It must be music being played by some musicians passing by".
Or "It must be some musicians passing by who're playing that music".
You can take it either way.

Don't try to understand it literally. English doesn't work that way. You often have to go by the intended meaning.

 

[dunchee]

I think in the original sentence, the pronoun “it” refers to the music the giant heard. So “it must be some musicians” means “the music must be some musicians”. I’m afraid it doesn’t make sense. What do you say?

Jutfrank already said it: "the source" of that music.

This is important:

Think a bit more about what this means. The giant has in mind a question: ....

The giant isn't trying to identify the music itself -- he wants to know the source of the music, so the source(it) must be ....