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Old Jan 3rd, 2006, 09:02 pm
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Default Re: which one is correct??

Takahiro,

"Canada is an English-speaking country" is correct. The word speaking is acting as an adjective describing the word "country". We use the present participle form (-ing form) when the word has an active meaning.

Oh, I had to check my English Usage book, so thanks for teaching me

To use "spoken", you could make a passive sentence:

"English is spoken in Canada."

It's passive because we don't tell who the actors are, or who exactly speaks English in Canada. In the case we know it is people and not, um, dogs or polar bears
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