Before looking at getLine, I can understand this: getnumber :: IO Int getnumber = do x <- getChar if isDigit x then return (ord x - ord '0') else return 0 OK, it is not a very useful function but at least I understand it. return is required so that the function returns an IO Int. But I don't understand this: getLine' :: IO String getLine' = do x <- getChar if x == '\n' then return [] else do xs <- getLine' return (x:xs) I can understand what will happen if a user enters a newline (only). return [] brings the empty list into the monadic world. But what is happening if x is not a newline? xs <- getLine' will recursively call getChar and retrieve another character from the input stream. But it will do this BEFORE the return (x:xs) - so what is happening to all the head elements in the list - the x element? It is difficult to picture in my mind how this is working. I understand recursion but this looks tricky. Can someone help me work this out?