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When I am learning Japanese I encounter this sentence. I think that the
particle が should be always used, but は was used instead. Could it be a typo?
Or something I have not learned yet?

In other words, should this sentence be :

半日のツアーがありますか。(Do you have any half-day tours?)
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2017-01-07T04:14:34.290
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2017-01-07T05:29:45.317
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grammar particle-は particle-が
"半日のツアーはありますか。" question
I am not sure because there isn't context, but I think that は was used to
indicate a contrast between half-day tours and whole-day tours. The は
particle, other than indicating the sentence topic, can be used to make a
contrast or to put emphasis on one thing instead of another. Example:

> 「全日のツアーがあります。」 「半日のツアーはありますか。」

Translation:

"We have whole-day tours"

"Do you have half-day tours (instead of whole-day ones)?"

For more information on the usage of が and は see
[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/40154/%E7%A7%81%E3%81%AF%E3%81%82%E3%81%8A%E3%81%84%E8%BB%8A%E3%81%AF%E3%81%99%E3%81%8D%E3%81%A0-%E3%81%AF-
as-contrast-particle-
vs-%E7%A7%81%E3%81%AF%E3%81%82%E3%81%8A%E3%81%84%E8%BB%8A%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%81%8D%E3%81%A0)
and [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/22/whats-the-
difference-between-wa-%E3%81%AF-and-ga-%E3%81%8C).
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2017-01-07T04:52:03.817
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No. In this case, 「半日のツアー **は** ありますか。」 is better.

The first thing you should learn is that the 「は」 particle can also be used to
indicate the subject. Try searching in this site and you will find many
answers that describes the difference between 「が」 and 「は」.

This 「は」 is the topic marker. The topic of this sentence should be (the
existence of) a half-day tour, so 「は」 fits here. On the other hand, 「が」 is not
appropriate because it sounds like introducing a certain half-day tour into
the context, though the speaker is not sure it exists.

So if we want to say "they have a half-day tour", 「半日のツアー **が** あります」 is
better than 「半日のツアー **は** あります」, becuase the former brings into a half-day
tour that we already know into the conversation.
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2017-01-07T04:57:11.010
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