if statement - Issues with a if/else loop in Python

Question

I am trying to make this Pig Latin translator in Python and it was working well until I tried to downsize it a bit.

Can someone please take a look at this code and tell me why, when I type in a word without a vowel at the beginning it will still print the "vowel" code in this if statement?

CODE:

pyg = 'ay'

original = raw_input('Enter a word: ')
low_original = original.lower()

if len(low_original) > 0 and low_original.isalpha():
        print low_original
        if low_original[0] == 'a' or 'e' or 'i' or 'o' or 'u':
                print "vowel"
                pyg_vowel = low_original + pyg
                print pyg_vowel
        else:
                print "consonant"
                pyg_cons = low_original[1: ] + low_original[0] + pyg
                print pyg_cons
else:
        print 'empty'

Answer 1

You need to do a check for all the vowels separately.

Currently, your if condition is evaluated as: -

if (low_original[0] == 'a') or 'e' or 'i' or 'o' or 'u':

or returns the first true value in its condition, which will either True or e here, depending upon your first condition is True or not. Now, since 'e' is evaluated to True, so both the values are true, hence your condition will always be true.

You should do it like this: -

if low_original[0] in 'aeiou':

or: -

if low_original[0] in ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'):