how find the letter in a string code example

Example 1: how to grep if the first letter is a character not a number

grep -i "^[a-z]"

Example 2: print first word of a string python and return it

def print_first_word():
    words = "All good things come to those who wait"
    print(words.split().pop(0))
    #to print the last word use pop(-1)
print_first_word()