How Many Words Are in Pythontongue?

On using keywords in Python

If we’re just counting so-called keywords, then there really aren’t a lot to learn in Python. Things change over time as new versions of Python appear, but by my count and at the time of this writing, there are only 35 key words. So take heart, newbies, this definitely ain’t Mandarin.

In fact, as a beginner who is taking tutorials, you’ll regularly use only about half those words. Still, I suspect that if you learn them all now, you’ll become a better coder faster (advice I wish someone had given me before I began my inefficient perambulations through Python coding). They don’t call them keywords for nothing.

So let’s start with an alphabetical list:

1. and
2. as
3. assert
4. async
5. await
6. break
7. class
8. continue
9. def
10. del
11. elif
12. else
13. except
14. False
15. finally
16. for
17. from
18. global
19. if
20. import
21. in
22. is
23. lambda
24. None
25. nonlocal
26. not
27. or
28. pass
29. raise
30. return
31. True
32. try
33. while
34. with
35. yield

Not too intimidating, right? Easier than memorizing the school play you were in elementary school (unless, of course, you played the tree, my personal fav).  Now that you know what the keywords are, you need to know what they all mean and can do. That’s where the next series of blog posts come in.

PS – If you want to know more about keywords right now, I highly recommend Programiz’s Description of Keywords in Python with examples.