30791
I asked a few native speakers about which phrase was more natural in a
situation where I ask a friend if they had time:

> 時間がありますか？

or

> 時間はありますか？

They all chose the latter. So is the former unnatural? In what situations
would you use it in?
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2016-01-28T18:35:53.577
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2016-02-07T16:24:58.383
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question
particles
Is 時間がありますか unnatural?
I'm amused to read all of your native Japanese speaking friends chose 時間はあります.
To me 時間があります and 時間はあります sound the same, and look interchangeable as a
postpositional particle - は、が following the subject..

If I was asked which of が and は I would choose in the following examples, I
would choose

> バッテリーの交換は３０分かかります。(お待ちいただく)時間 **は** ありますか？
>
> 開宴まで５分です。トイレに行く時間 **は** ありますか？
>
> もう６０歳だ。残された時間 **は** ない
>
> まだ十分考える時間 **が** ある
>
> くだくだ言っている時間 **は** ない

But it doesn’t mean the other option would be grammatically wrong.

Frankly I don’t know why I chose them this way. It might be just intuitive for
me, and it is a matter of taste at best. I don’t think the choice of は and が
makes any significant difference in meaning or grammaticality in most cases.
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2016-01-28T22:45:05.710
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2016-01-29T06:20:24.350
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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As a native speaker, I would also definitely choose your **_second_** sentence
using 「 **は** 」 if you just asked me:

> "Which phrase is more natural in a situation where I ask a friend if they
> had time?"

without giving any more specific information. In other words, the **_exact
context_**. What is the situation in which you are asking this friend if s/he
has time? What exactly did you and/or s/he say immediately before you uttered
the sentence 「時間（ ）ありますか？」, etc.?

Japanese is an **_extremely_** contextual language; Context is king. And
believe me, that is still an understatement.

With over three decades of experience with Japanese-learners, I know well that
their "favorite" subject marker is 「が」 for the reasons I have yet to
understand to be honest. Many use it as if it were the default option.

You need a good reason to use 「が」 over 「は」, but the question **"Do you have
time?"** is so generic in nature that choosing to use 「が」 is not only fairly
unnatural but is also highly unjustifiable.
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2016-01-29T00:13:56.513
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2016-01-29T06:23:21.950
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One option that might be overlooked is to _omit_ the particle, as opposed to
choosing "は" or "が". In this case, it would sound much closer to "は" than "が".

Personally, I would go with this third option, in most cases.

Nonetheless, I concur that [context really is important when discussing
Japanese](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/30795/11830). There are cases
when one would sound correct, and the other incorrect and vice versa.

> In what situations would you use [the former] in?

When the subject is made clear to be someone other than the listener.
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2016-01-29T06:44:30.960
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2016-01-29T06:51:42.883
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It's not technically impossible to use 時間が… for questions (unlike sentences of
statement that represent speaker's judgement) but it may sound like you
suspect that they have time. Usually, you use a sentence that contains some
topic when you ask people and expect them to reply, for them to follow the
topic you have staked.
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2016-01-29T07:24:58.877
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answer