Learn Italian: Anche la madre è qui? - Is the mother also here?

In Italian, you don't need to change the word order or swap the subject and verb to ask a simple yes/no question. You just take the normal statement Anche la madre è qui (The mother is also here) and make your voice go up at the end when speaking, or simply add a question mark when writing!

Why is anche at the very beginning of the sentence?

In Italian, anche (also/too) is usually placed right before the word or idea it applies to. Here, the speaker is asking if the mother is here in addition to other people. So, anche goes right before la madre. Literally, it is like asking "Also the mother is here?".

Why does the word è have an accent mark here?

The accent mark distinguishes it from a word that looks very similar. With the accent, è means "is" (from the verb essere, to be). Without the accent, e means "and". Since we need a verb to ask if the mother "is" here, we must use the accented è.

Could I use qua instead of qui?

Yes! Both qui and qua mean "here" and are incredibly common. They can be used interchangeably in this sentence, though qui can sometimes feel a tiny bit more specific, like pointing to exactly "right here".