Learn coding and English together, live from Peru

año = 2026
niños = ['Ana', 'Luis']
print(año, len(niños))

for name in ['año', 'niños', 'mi_variable', 'mi-variable', '2026año', 'class', 'clase']:
    print(f'{name:<12} {name.isidentifier()}')

isidentifier() asks Python whether a piece of text could be used as a name. The documentation says it returns True if the string is a valid identifier according to the language definition.

2026 2
año          True
niños        True
mi_variable  True
mi-variable  False
2026año      False
class        True
clase        True

Exact output from our run with Python 3.14.8. año and niños work, accents and all. A hyphen is not allowed, and a name cannot start with a digit. And class says True, which turns out to be misleading.

import keyword

for name in ['class', 'clase', 'if', 'si', 'while', 'mientras', 'print', 'imprimir']:
    usable = name.isidentifier() and not keyword.iskeyword(name)
    print(f'{name:<10} keyword: {keyword.iskeyword(name)!s:<6} usable as a name: {usable}')

keyword.iskeyword tells you whether a word is reserved by the language. A name is only usable if it passes both checks.

class      keyword: True   usable as a name: False
clase      keyword: False  usable as a name: True
if         keyword: True   usable as a name: False
si         keyword: False  usable as a name: True
while      keyword: True   usable as a name: False
mientras   keyword: False  usable as a name: True
print      keyword: False  usable as a name: True
imprimir   keyword: False  usable as a name: True

Exact output from our run. Every English keyword is taken, and every Spanish translation is free. The last two lines hide a trap: print is not a keyword, so Python will let you use it as a name.

# run on a computer whose language is set to Spanish (Peru)
imprimir("hola")

We ran this with the computer's language set to Spanish (Peru), to see whether Python answers in Spanish.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
    imprimir("hola")
    ^^^^^^^^
NameError: name 'imprimir' is not defined

Exact output from our run. The computer is in Spanish; the error is in English. imprimir is a perfectly legal name, but nothing has that name, so Python reports a NameError.

print = "hola"
print("hola")

The first line is allowed. The second line tries to call the text "hola" as if it were a function.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 2, in <module>
    print("hola")
    ~~~~~^^^^^^^^
TypeError: 'str' object is not callable

Exact output from our run. "Object is not callable" is precise technical English: the thing named print is now a string, and you cannot call a string.