use strict;
my $str = 'yest
yeste
yester
yesterd
yesterda
yesterday
tod
toda
today
tom
tomo
tomor
tomorr
tomorro
tomorrow
yesteray
tomorow
tommorrow
tody
yesteday';
my $regex = qr/\b(yest(?:e(?:r(?:d(?:ay?)?)?)?)?|tod(?:ay?)?|tom(?:o(?:r(?:r(?:ow?)?)?)?)?)\b/ip;
if ( $str =~ /$regex/g ) {
  print "Whole match is ${^MATCH} and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[0] and \$+[0]\n";
  # print "Capture Group 1 is $1 and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[1] and \$+[1]\n";
  # print "Capture Group 2 is $2 ... and so on\n";
}
# ${^POSTMATCH} and ${^PREMATCH} are also available with the use of '/p'
# Named capture groups can be called via $+{name}
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 Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html