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In an exam a teacher has put the following example to fill in the gap:
Amici Rufi ____ noscebant.
According to the docent, if the right word has been selected, the translation in English should be:
The friends of Rufus knew him.
So, in my opinion the only possible option for filling the gap would be EUM since it corresponds to the function of him in the transaltion. An accusative, third person, singular, masculine pronoun. Could there be another option than this?
Your suggestion eum would indeed be the standard one. There are options, based on the fact that the English "he" does not correspond to a single Latin pronoun. Instead of is you could use ille and sometimes qui or iste or ipse or idem, and sometimes you can drop the pronoun altogether.
Without further context (and there usually isn't further context for an exercise like that), I would say that the two most correct answers are eum and illum.
Him (meaning 'this man,' 'that man.')
hunc, illum, istum,
(also (derogatory) ollum Cicero, but this usage decried by Quintilian)
also ollus, a, um, old form for ille, q. v. Lewis and Short perseus
Him (meaning 'this very person' or 'the self-same person)
See II Esp. A By way of eminence, ipse is used to indicate the chief person, host, master, teacher, etc.
ipsum
ipsum praesto video, Terence And. 2, 5, 3:
Lewis and Short Ipse http://perseus.uchicago.edu/
Him (meaning 'the same person ') even more emphatic than ipse.
eundem.
