>perl -wMstrict -le "my $line = 'One two three four five'; if ($line =~ m/(one)\s(two)\s(three)\s(four)\s(five)/i){ my $neo; { ($neo = $1) =~ s{ (o)(ne) }{$2$1}xmsi; } print qq{neo '$neo'}; print qq{1: $1}; print qq{2: $2}; print qq{3: $3}; print qq{4: $4}; print qq{5: $5}; } " neo 'neO' 1: One 2: two 3: three 4: four 5: five