$re = '/(?:2|two)\sweeks\s\K
(?|(Mon|Tue(s)?|Wed(nes|s)?|Thu(rs|r)?|Fri|Sat(ur)?|Sun))(day|d)?
/x';
$str = 'blah 2 weeks Wed blah';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($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