Learn Italian: La tisana è inclusa? - Is the herbal tea included?

In Italian, tè specifically refers to regular tea made from tea leaves (like black or green tea), while tisana is used for herbal teas or infusions (like chamomile, peppermint, or fruit blends).

Why does the word inclusa end in -a here?

Inclusa is the past participle of includere (to include), but here it acts as an adjective describing la tisana. Because tisana is a feminine singular noun, the ending must match and changes to -a.

Since this lesson is about polite requests with vorrei, how could I use it to ask this question?

While you cannot swap è for vorrei directly to ask if something is included, you could make it a polite request for information by saying: Vorrei sapere se la tisana è inclusa (I would like to know if the herbal tea is included). However, simply asking the original sentence with a polite tone is perfectly natural!

How do we know this is a question if the word order is exactly the same as a statement?

In Italian, you do not need to swap the subject and verb to make a question like you do in English ('Is the tea...' vs 'The tea is...'). You simply keep the normal statement word order and raise your pitch at the end of the sentence to show you are asking something.