$re = '/(french[\s\S]*?)/';
$str = 'I am a boy with french - Glukker Man';
$subst = "<center>$1</centre>";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str, 1);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$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