diff --git a/Get_Functions.py b/Get_Functions.py
index e5c8200..417a079 100644
--- a/Get_Functions.py
+++ b/Get_Functions.py
@@ -14,15 +14,7 @@ randomStuff = ["Cherophobia is the fear of fun","A flock of crows is called a mu
 
 def getName(sentence):
     """get the name of the user from the inputed sentence"""
-    #first - getting rid of unwanted chars
-    unwantedChar = [".","'","!","?",","]
-    newSentence = ""
-    for char in sentence:
-        if char not in unwantedChar:
-            newSentence = newSentence + char
-    newSentence = newSentence.lower() # makes all letters into lowercase - much easier and more efficient
-    
-    userWords = newSentence.split() #the sentence is split up into words and put into a list
+    userWords = sentence.split() #the sentence is split up into words and put into a list
 
     # ways of introduction:
     # "Hello, my name is ___"
diff --git a/determineUserInput.py b/determineUserInput.py
index 051d6b5..05c130b 100644
--- a/determineUserInput.py
+++ b/determineUserInput.py
@@ -9,12 +9,17 @@ def determineUserInput(sentence):
     response = ""
     sentence = sentence.lower()
     sentenceParse = sentence.split()
- 
+    #first - getting rid of unwanted chars
+    unwantedChar = [".","'","!","?",","]
+    newSentence = ""
+    for char in unwantedChar:
+        sentence.replace(char,"")
+
     if sentenceParse[0] in questionStarters:  # ------------- execute the "what is" code here ---------------
         response = respondQuestion(sentence), 2
     elif sentenceParse[0] in greetings:
         response = getName(sentence), 1
-    elif sentence[0] in "abcd":
+    elif sentenceParse[0] in "abcd":
         response = sentence, 3
     else:
         response = sentence, 0