 <p>The preferred way to interact with a db when using an ORM is not to use queries but to use objects that correspond to the tables you are manipulating, typically in conjunction with the session object. SELECT queries become get() or find() calls in some ORMs, query() calls in others. INSERT becomes creating a new object of the type you want (and maybe explicitly adding it, eg session.add() in sqlalchemy). UPDATE becomes editing such an object, and DELETE becomes deleting an object (eg. session.delete() ). The ORM is meant to handle the hard work of translating these operations into SQL for you.</p> <p>Have you read <a href="http://www.sqlalchemy.org/docs/05/ormtutorial.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the tutorial</a>?</p>