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I'm trying to understand some basic phrases from this Japanese phrasebook:

<https://wikitravel.org/en/Japanese_phrasebook>

There is a phrase:

Is there a doctor who can speak English? 英語の出来る医者はいますか？

Why is the particle は used here instead of が? I thought that noun + がいますか is
used to ask questions such as "Is there..?"/"Are there..?". Thank you!
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2018-08-06T17:07:27.323
60713
2018-08-06T22:20:38.240
30904
question
grammar
Why is は used here instead of が?
The particle は is used here to mark the topic of the sentence. In this case
the topic, overall arching thing that is being talked about, of the sentence
is a doctor (医者). This happens to be the same thing as the subject, which
could be marked with the particle が.

I would say the reason that は is used instead of が based on the context is
that a doctor is common knowledge. Also we are setting the stage (overall
arching topic) that you are speaking about a doctor. Since the concept of a
doctor is common knowledge it does have to be "introduced". You could probably
still use が here and the meaning would not change, but if a が was used here I
would assume that the topic was already set to talk about doctors.

To answer the second part of your question (used to ask questions such as). In
this case the particle が is used when asking questions where the word that
comes before the が is a wh- word

Example

> Who ate the food?
>
> 誰が食べ物を食べた?

You are not sure who ate the food and in this case they, whoever this is, has
to be introduced.

* * *

Your sentence broken down The portion 医者はいますか translates to

> Is there a doctor that exists? -> Is there a doctor?

This is paired with the portion

> 英語の出来る

Creates a relative clause and adds more information to the 医者はいますか part

So the full phrase 英語の出来る医者はいますか translates to

> Is there a doctor that exists who can speak English? -> Is there a doctor
> who can speak English?
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2018-08-06T19:21:10.137
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2018-08-06T22:20:38.240
2018-08-06T22:20:38.240
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answer