Don't capture into a single set of parens; use a set for each chunk you want distinguishable and then look in @- and figure out which one matched. 

$ perl -MYAML::Syck=Dump -le '$_="fum";/(fee)|(fie)|(foe)|(fum)/;print
+ Dump( \@- );print "paren ", grep( defined $-[$_], 1..4), " matched"'
--- 
- 0
- ~
- ~
- ~
- 0

paren 4 matched

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The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.

In reply to Re: Determining which pattern matched by Fletch
in thread Determining which pattern matched by Anonymous Monk

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