Is there a way I can use the 'if' function to print out a string depending on the first letter of the original input string?

Before I ask my question, you should know I have little to no experience with programming. Is there a way I can use an if function to determine if the first letter of a string is a vowel and if not, then print something else?

I've done quite a bit of research and the answers I found were too far advanced for me to understand. This is a small challenge I've handed myself that is based off of CodeAcademy's 'Pyg Latin' Translator

translate = input("Translate: ")
cons = "ay"
vowel = "way"
if len(translate) > 0:
    switch = str(translate[0])
    if str(translate[0]) != "a, e, i, o, u":
        new_word = str(translate) + str(switch) + str(cons)
        print (new_word.lower())

else:
    new_word = str(translate) + str(vowel)
    print (new_word.lower())

else:
    print("Please type something")

The job is to add "Way" or "Ay" depending on whether 'translate' begins with a vowel. I feel as though i'm skipping over something completely obvious but I can't figure it out. Thank you for your help!