Hiragana / Grammer question

[w2m0e501]

Hope this finds you well.

I've been slowly moving along with my studies and have a question.

Along with JP101 I'm also using Rosetta Stone and have found the following sentence.

uma wa hastitte imasu.

I would have assumed it would be written like this in Hiragana.

うまわはしっています。

Instead Rosetta Stone writes it like this.

うまははしっています。

They are using は instead of わ and is this correct and why is it correct?

Thank you.

Joe

[kichigaijin]

That's particle は　which doesn't sound like "ha", it sounds like "wa".
It's function is to declare the subject.

うま　（馬）　is the subject
はしっています　is the verb, for "is running"
That leaves a "wa" sound as a particle.
There is *normally* no わ　particle - well unless it's at the end of the sentence as a female, slang version of よ　or if it's kansaiben; hence the "normally".

[w2m0e501]

Thank you. This helps greatly and I have added this to my grammer tips. Thank you again.

cheers,
joe