use strict; use warnings; while () { if ($_ =~ m/\bGuinea\b/) { print "We have a match\n"; # m/\bGuinea\b$/ matches Guinea at end #m/^\bGuinea\b$/ matches Guinea at the beginning } else { print "We do not have a match\n"; } } __DATA__ Papua New Guinea I live in Guinea Guinea Bissau Equatorial Guinea