How can I get the root word in Python? -

i want root of word. not using stemmer because want replacements. here code; gives me correct results, except not replace "ies" "y" when token ends in "ies":

import string; contents = ["shoping", "balls", "babies"] token in contents:     if token.endswith("ies"):         string.replace(token,'ies','y',1)         print token     elif token.endswith('s'):         print token[0:-1]     elif token.endswith("ed"):         print token[0:-2]     elif token.endswith("ing"):         print token[0:-3] 

to add bit more gobusto's answer, use of string library redundant (as semi colon after import string).

you can instead:

contents = ["shoping", "balls", "babies"] token in contents:     if token.endswith("ies"):         token = token.replace('ies','y',1)         print token     elif token.endswith('s'):         print token[0:-1]     elif token.endswith("ed"):         print token[0:-2]     elif token.endswith("ing"):         print token[0:-3]