I keep getting a SyntaxError because I don't know what, CANCELLED and FINISHED mean.

Hi Nicholas,

You're right that the variable name is states! And in this case it is a list. However, I think I might see a problem; there doesn't appear to be a closing bracket on your list. It should come after 5, and look like this -

states = [
    'ACTIVE',
    ['red', 'green', 'blue'],
    'CANCELLED',
    'FINISHED',
    5,
]

This particular list contains multiple things. Three strings, an integer, and another list comprised of three strings. When using .remove(), the item you wish to remove needs to go inside the parentheses after remove, in its entirety, so if you're directly removing a string, you must include the quotation marks around the outside of it, and same goes for any other python class type. Ex:

states.remove('FINISHED')
states.remove(5)
states.remove(['red', 'green', 'blue'])

The items inside a list should not interfere with how that list is processed, so the strings 'CANCELLED' and 'FINISHED' are just that; strings! Any removing that you do should be written after the list is closed, and I like to keep a space in between any variables and actions, just to be safe. Hopefully this clears it up a little bit, if you have any more questions feel free to ask. Happy coding :)

The list of 'states' contain items and none of those items do anything specific except take a spot in the list. The objective is to remove the items that don't fit. The way to do this is to use the remove() function and reference the 'states' list when doing so (hint: it involves dot notation and you can only remove 1 item at a time by typing it in between the '()').