continue, break, and pass aren't functions, but keywords. Just like how if, for, and while aren't functions, the same applies to these three. pass is the simplest to understand. Sometimes, you might want to define a function just so that it's there, but you aren't quite ready to fill it in yet. Except, just defining a function, like this: def toaster(): Will give an error, something like "Expected indented block after toaster():. Essentially, pass is a valid expression, but it doesn't do anything. It's just like a filler. So, to define our empty function, we can do this: def toaster(): pass And have it run without errors. continue and break are related in that they're both used only in loops. These loops can be either while loops or for loops, but we'll use this for loop as an example: for i in range(10): print(i) This outputs: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 So, in english terms, break "jumps" out of a loop at the point where its called, and everything following below it isn't run. Consider this new loop with an if statement and a break: for i in range(10): if i == 5: break print(i) This outputs: 0 1 2 3 4 Which makes sense, because after printing "4", the next loop causes the expression i == 5 to evaluate to True, which means we break. Once we break, we immediately jump out of the loop and into whatever code comes next, after the loop. In this example, we have none. Note how that "5" is never printed, because we break before we reach the print statement for when i = 5. For continue, instead of exiting the entire loop, it just skips everything that is supposed to follow in the current iteration, and jumps to the next. Here is a similar example with continue: for i in range(10): if i == 5: continue print(i) And this outputs: 0 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 Note how the loop still runs its full length, but that 5 isn't printed. This is because when i == 5 evaluates to True, we continue, which means that everything following is skipped, and we go to the next iteration, where i = 6. Let me know if you have any questions! More on reddit.com

pass is a "no-op", a "no operation", a statement that means "this line does nothing." There's some corner cases where that's useful, since all of Python's flow control constructs have to be followed by at least one indented line. So you can use pass in cases where you need to provide a line, but you don't want to do anything. It's like when you see a page in a book that says "this page intentionally left blank." continue is a statement that means "within the context of this loop, skip from here to the next iteration." More on reddit.com

The break statement results in the termination of the loop, it will come out of the loop and stops further iterations. The continue statement stops the current execution of the iteration and proceeds to the next iteration. The return statement takes you out of the method. More on reddit.com

Does your language support exceptions ? If so I would advise handling break and continue the same way you handle exceptions. break and continue cause non-local control flow, just like exception do. If that is not the case (or you haven't treated exceptions yet), does the language you're using to implement the interpreter support exceptions ? If that's the case, I would suggest using exceptions of the host language to implement break and continue. Just create two types of exception Break and Continue, and place some exceptions handler everytime you start to interpret a loop. Reaching a break statement raises a Break exception (respectively for continue) which is caught at the top of the loop. You can use the same technique to handle exceptions in the language you're creating. I hope that makes sense :) More on reddit.com