from typing import Tuple


def _is_subtuple(t: Tuple[str, ...], s: Tuple[str, ...]) -> bool:
    """
    Returns true if t is a subtuple of s.

    For example, ("A", "B", "E") is a subtuple of ("A", "B", "E", "D", "E"),
    but not of ("A", "B", "C", "D", "E").
    """
    # short-term hack: assume all items are single-character strings.
    return "".join(t) in "".join(s)