perl -MO=Deparse -pne "s/(\d+)([st|nd|rd|th])+/num2en_ordinal($1)/ge;s/(\d+)/num2en($1)/ge" LINE: while (defined($_ = )) { s/(\d+)([st|nd|rd|th])+/num2en_ordinal($1);/eg; s/(\d+)/num2en($1);/eg; } continue { die "-p destination: $!\n" unless print $_; } -e syntax OK