patternpythonMinor

Pig latin translating program

Submitted by: @import:stackexchange-codereview·Mar 10, 2026·

Viewed 0 times

programtranslatinglatinpig

Problem

About 2 months ago I started studying python and then 3 days ago sat and began to write a program (found the dumbest & simplest thought I could: a pyglatin translator). I finally got it working 100%. Being a beginner I would love to hear some constructive criticism on my program; I know I have probably written more then was needed on some stuff and taken a long way around on others.

another_word = " "
sentence1 = " "
new_list = []
another = " "

def trans_one_word (i):
    global another_word
    pyg = 'ay'

    original = (i)

    if len(original) > 0 and original.isalpha():
        word = original.lower()
        first = word[0]
        new_word = word + first + pyg
        another_word = new_word[1:len(new_word)]
        return another_word
    else:
        print('empty')

def input_state():

    sentence = input("enter a word to be translated: ")
    list = sentence.split()
    for i in list:
        trans_one_word(i)
        new_list.append(another_word)
    s = " "
    print (s.join( new_list ))

input_state()

another = input("Would you like to enter another sentence to be     translated? \n Y/N")

if (another == 'y') or (another == 'Y'):
    input_state()

All in all I am proud of myself for actually writing it without any help, or all of it except the last "if" statement (I had minor problems with it).

Solution

Some comments on your code. Overall you are using a lot of unnecessary variables.

another_word = " "
sentence1 = " "
new_list = []
another = " "

You really don't need these variables declared outside of your functions, they add no value and just pollute the namespace.

def trans_one_word (i):

PEP8 doesn't recommend a `

 before the args. And you should consider having more meaningful arg names.

global another_word


Unnecessary global, you are returning this variable from the function so don't need it to be global

pyg = 'ay'

    original = (i)


Parens are unnecessary and you could just call the arg

original

 as you don't need this assignment.

if len(original) > 0 and original.isalpha():
        word = original.lower()
        first = word[0]
        new_word = word + first + pyg
        another_word = new_word[1:len(new_word)]


You don't need

len(new_word) on a slice an empty slice implies to the end of the word, e.g. new_word[1:]



first = word[0]
        new_word = word + first + pyg
        another_word = new_word[1:len(new_word)]
        return another_word


This whole block can be simplified to

return word[1:] + word[0] + pyg



else:
        print('empty')


You don't need the

else:

 clause because the previous block returned. You should also return the original word.

def input_state():

    sentence = input("enter a word to be translated: ")


Assume you meant to ask for a words or a sentence given the variable name:

list = sentence.split()

list

 is a python type, so shouldn't be used for a variable name.

for i in list:
        trans_one_word(i)
        new_list.append(another_word)
    s = " "


You should look into list comprehensions and generators as this can be significantly simplified, e.g.

print(" ".join(trans_one_word(i) for i in sentence.split()))



print (s.join( new_list ))


It's probably better to return this result and let the caller

 it.

input_state()

another = input("Would you like to enter another sentence to be     translated? \n Y/N")

if (another == 'y') or (another == 'Y'):
    input_state()


This condition can be replaced with

if another in 'yY':`
You should really put this all into a loop so with an exit clause.

Simplifying the code:

def trans_one_word(word):
    pyg = 'ay'

    if word and word.isalpha():
        word = word.lower()
        return word[1:] + word[0] + pyg
    return word

def input_state():
    sentence = input("enter a sentence to be translated: ")
    return " ".join(trans_one_word(word) for word in sentence.split())

while True:
    print(input_state())
    another = input("Would you like to enter another sentence to be translated?\nY/N")
    if another not in 'yY':
        break

Code Snippets

another_word = " "
sentence1 = " "
new_list = []
another = " "

def trans_one_word (i):

global another_word

pyg = 'ay'

    original = (i)

if len(original) > 0 and original.isalpha():
        word = original.lower()
        first = word[0]
        new_word = word + first + pyg
        another_word = new_word[1:len(new_word)]

Context

StackExchange Code Review Q#145614, answer score: 5

Revisions (0)

No revisions yet.