something like "if" that returns a value?

[Paul Rudin]

I'm having a little play with python, just to try it out; and one
thing that I find I miss from other languages is something like lisp's
if:

(if x y z)

which returns y if x is true and z otherwise.

I realise that I can define a function that does this for me; but is
there a succinct way of expressing this in the base language?

-- 
Am I accompanied by a PARENT or GUARDIAN?