$re = '/^(?=.* (?!.* ))?a ?b ?c ?d ?e ?f ?g ?h ?i ?j ?k ?$/m';
$str = 'a bcdefghijk
ab cdefghijk
abc defghijk
abcd efghijk
abcde fghijk
abcdef ghijk
abcdefg hijk
abcdefgh ijk
abcdefghi jk
abcdefghij k
abcdefghijk
abcdefghijk
';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php