$re = '/^([^a-zA-Z]*)([a-z])|(\.\s*)([a-z])/m';
$str = '.this sentence
and this
This is already
.this sentence
and this.also this. and this.This one is not.';
$subst = "$1\U$2$3\U$4";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
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