diff --git a/src/expr.jl b/src/expr.jl
index b779a490..6d1e8ed6 100644
--- a/src/expr.jl
+++ b/src/expr.jl
@@ -526,7 +526,7 @@ end
 
 function _to_expr(node)
     file = sourcefile(node)
-    if !haschildren(node)
+    if is_leaf(node)
         offset, txtbuf = _unsafe_wrap_substring(sourcetext(file))
         return _leaf_to_Expr(file, txtbuf, head(node), byte_range(node) .+ offset, node)
     end
diff --git a/src/green_tree.jl b/src/green_tree.jl
index c4df5163..8a4b4634 100644
--- a/src/green_tree.jl
+++ b/src/green_tree.jl
@@ -23,16 +23,16 @@ As implementation choices, we choose that:
 struct GreenNode{Head}
     head::Head
     span::UInt32
-    args::Union{Tuple{},Vector{GreenNode{Head}}}
+    args::Union{Nothing,Vector{GreenNode{Head}}}
 end
 
-function GreenNode(head::Head, span::Integer, args) where {Head}
+function GreenNode(head::Head, span::Integer, args=nothing) where {Head}
     GreenNode{Head}(head, span, args)
 end
 
 # Accessors / predicates
-haschildren(node::GreenNode) = !(node.args isa Tuple{})
-children(node::GreenNode)    = node.args
+is_leaf(node::GreenNode)     = isnothing(node.args)
+children(node::GreenNode)    = isnothing(node.args) ? () : node.args
 span(node::GreenNode)        = node.span
 head(node::GreenNode)        = node.head
 
@@ -49,19 +49,19 @@ function _show_green_node(io, node, indent, pos, str, show_trivia)
         return
     end
     posstr = "$(lpad(pos, 6)):$(rpad(pos+span(node)-1, 6)) │"
-    is_leaf = !haschildren(node)
-    if is_leaf
+    leaf = is_leaf(node)
+    if leaf
         line = string(posstr, indent, summary(node))
     else
         line = string(posstr, indent, '[', summary(node), ']')
     end
-    if !is_trivia(node) && is_leaf
+    if !is_trivia(node) && leaf
         line = rpad(line, 40) * "✔"
     end
     if is_error(node)
         line = rpad(line, 41) * "✘"
     end
-    if is_leaf && !isnothing(str)
+    if leaf && !isnothing(str)
         line = string(rpad(line, 43), ' ', repr(str[pos:prevind(str, pos + span(node))]))
     end
     line = line*"\n"
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ function _show_green_node(io, node, indent, pos, str, show_trivia)
     else
         print(io, line)
     end
-    if !is_leaf
+    if !leaf
         new_indent = indent*"  "
         p = pos
         for x in children(node)
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ end
 function build_tree(::Type{GreenNode}, stream::ParseStream; kws...)
     build_tree(GreenNode{SyntaxHead}, stream; kws...) do h, srcrange, cs
         span = length(srcrange)
-        isnothing(cs) ? GreenNode(h, span, ()) :
+        isnothing(cs) ? GreenNode(h, span) :
                         GreenNode(h, span, collect(GreenNode{SyntaxHead}, cs))
     end
 end
diff --git a/src/hooks.jl b/src/hooks.jl
index c87d32b0..97189321 100644
--- a/src/hooks.jl
+++ b/src/hooks.jl
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ function _first_error(t::SyntaxNode)
     if is_error(t)
         return 0,t
     end
-    if haschildren(t)
+    if !is_leaf(t)
         for (i,c) in enumerate(children(t))
             if is_error(c)
                 return i,c
diff --git a/src/syntax_tree.jl b/src/syntax_tree.jl
index dc9a7375..af2d3e31 100644
--- a/src/syntax_tree.jl
+++ b/src/syntax_tree.jl
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ end
 function _to_SyntaxNode(source::SourceFile, txtbuf::Vector{UInt8}, offset::Int,
                         raw::GreenNode{SyntaxHead},
                         position::Int, keep_parens::Bool)
-    if !haschildren(raw)
+    if is_leaf(raw)
         # Here we parse the values eagerly rather than representing them as
         # strings. Maybe this is good. Maybe not.
         valrange = position:position + span(raw) - 1
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ function _to_SyntaxNode(source::SourceFile, txtbuf::Vector{UInt8}, offset::Int,
     end
 end
 
-haschildren(node::TreeNode) = node.children !== nothing
+is_leaf(node::TreeNode) = node.children === nothing
 children(node::TreeNode) = (c = node.children; return c === nothing ? () : c)
 numchildren(node::TreeNode) = (isnothing(node.children) ? 0 : length(node.children))
 
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ function _show_syntax_node(io, current_filename, node::AbstractSyntaxNode,
         posstr *= "$(lpad(first_byte(node),6)):$(rpad(last_byte(node),6))│"
     end
     val = node.val
-    nodestr = haschildren(node) ? "[$(untokenize(head(node)))]" :
+    nodestr = !is_leaf(node) ? "[$(untokenize(head(node)))]" :
               isa(val, Symbol) ? string(val) : repr(val)
     treestr = string(indent, nodestr)
     # Add filename if it's changed from the previous node
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ function _show_syntax_node(io, current_filename, node::AbstractSyntaxNode,
         current_filename[] = fname
     end
     println(io, posstr, treestr)
-    if haschildren(node)
+    if !is_leaf(node)
         new_indent = indent*"  "
         for n in children(node)
             _show_syntax_node(io, current_filename, n, new_indent, show_byte_offsets)
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ function _show_syntax_node(io, current_filename, node::AbstractSyntaxNode,
 end
 
 function _show_syntax_node_sexpr(io, node::AbstractSyntaxNode)
-    if !haschildren(node)
+    if is_leaf(node)
         if is_error(node)
             print(io, "(", untokenize(head(node)), ")")
         else
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ function Base.show(io::IO, node::AbstractSyntaxNode)
 end
 
 function Base.push!(node::SN, child::SN) where SN<:AbstractSyntaxNode
-    if !haschildren(node)
+    if is_leaf(node)
         error("Cannot add children")
     end
     args = children(node)
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ end
 function Base.copy(node::TreeNode)
     # copy the container but not the data (ie, deep copy the tree, shallow copy the data). copy(::Expr) is similar
     # copy "un-parents" the top-level `node` that you're copying
-    newnode = typeof(node)(nothing, haschildren(node) ? typeof(node)[] : nothing, copy(node.data))
+    newnode = typeof(node)(nothing, is_leaf(node) ? nothing : typeof(node)[], copy(node.data))
     for child in children(node)
         newchild = copy(child)
         newchild.parent = newnode
diff --git a/test/green_node.jl b/test/green_node.jl
index 8dc79455..020c212d 100644
--- a/test/green_node.jl
+++ b/test/green_node.jl
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
     t = parsestmt(GreenNode, "aa + b")
 
     @test span(t) == 6
-    @test haschildren(t)
+    @test !is_leaf(t)
     @test head(t) == SyntaxHead(K"call", 0x0008)
     @test span.(children(t)) == [2,1,1,1,1]
     @test head.(children(t)) == [
diff --git a/test/test_utils.jl b/test/test_utils.jl
index 28a69923..9d666fbd 100644
--- a/test/test_utils.jl
+++ b/test/test_utils.jl
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ using .JuliaSyntax:
     SyntaxHead,
     is_trivia,
     sourcetext,
-    haschildren,
+    is_leaf,
     children,
     child,
     fl_parseall,
@@ -276,14 +276,14 @@ function _reduce_tree(failing_subtrees, tree; exprs_equal=exprs_equal_no_linenum
     if equals_flisp_parse(exprs_equal, tree)
         return false
     end
-    if !haschildren(tree)
+    if is_leaf(tree)
         push!(failing_subtrees, tree)
         return true
     end
     had_failing_subtrees = false
-    if haschildren(tree)
+    if !is_leaf(tree)
         for child in children(tree)
-            if is_trivia(child) || !haschildren(child)
+            if is_trivia(child) || is_leaf(child)
                 continue
             end
             had_failing_subtrees |= _reduce_tree(failing_subtrees, child; exprs_equal=exprs_equal)