question on list in Python

[spalisetty06]

Hello,
Can you please explain to me in simple lines, the difference between "a = list("apple)" and "a = ["apple"]"?
Actually I was trying to append the character '_' to every character I find in the list.

WordToBeGuessed = ["Apple"]
Hidden = []
for EachCharacter in WordToBeGuessed:
    Hidden.append("_")
print(WordToBeGuessed)
print(Hidden)

gives me ['_']

while

WordToBeGuessed = list("Apple")
Hidden = []
for EachCharacter in WordToBeGuessed:
    Hidden.append("_")
print(WordToBeGuessed)
print(Hidden)

gives me ['_', '_', '_', '_', '_']

which is the desired answer but I just wanted to know the difference. Thank You