#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $temp = "Firstword and then the rest of the string";

$temp =~ /^(\w+)/i;

my $firstword = $1;

##</code><code>##

my $temp = "Firstword and then the rest of the string";

$temp =~ /^(\w+)([ \w]*)/i;

my $firstword = $1;
my $restofstring = $2;