s/\b((qu|[bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz]+)?([a-z]+))/$2?$3.$2."ay":$1."way"/eg; #### #!/usr/bin/perl -w my $test = "that is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."; $test=~s/ \b # start of word ( # capture all to $1 ( # this is $2 qu # word starts with qu | # or [bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz]+ # a consonent )? # but it's optional ( # this is $3 [a-z]+ # rest of word ) ) /$2 ? $3.$2."ay" : $1."way" /xeg; # if $2 evaluates as true then # put it at end of word and add "ay" # otherwise, just add "way" print $test;