grammar - "People who" or "people that"



I am doing homework and I got confused about this phrase when I was writing. I am not a native English speaker.



(...) and the only way to do this was taking control of everything and being authoritarian towards the people who/that could not do anything about it.



I would be grateful if you help me clarify which word should I use.



Answer



"Who" refers to people; "that" may refer to either people or things. Use "who" if doing so would help your reader identity the antecedent. That's not a problem with your text.


"... the only way to do this was by taking control ...."


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