s = 'there once was a man from nantucket' vowels = ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u') phrase = s.split() def processWord(word): wordtemp = word length = len(word) for i in range(length): letter = word[i] if letter in vowels: return wordtemp + 'ay' else: wordtemp = wordtemp[i+1:] + letter def processSentence(phrase): sentencetemp = '' for word in phrase: sentencetemp = sentencetemp + processWord(word) + ' ' return sentencetemp finished = processSentence(phrase) print(finished)