Matching a substring (an apostrophe) in a given word using regex - php

Question

I have a server application which looks up where the stress is in Russian words. The end user writes a word жажда. The server downloads a page from another server which contains the stresses indicated with apostrophes for each case/declension like this жа'жда. I need to find that word in the downloaded page.
In Russian the stress is always written after a vowel. I've been using so far a regex that is a grouping of all possible combinations (жа'жда|жажда'). Is there a more elegant solution using just a regex pattern instead of making a PHP script which creates all these combinations?
EDIT:
I have a word жажда
The downloaded page contains the string жа'жда. (notice the
apostrophe, I do not before-hand know where the apostrophe in the
word is)
I want to match the word with apostrophe (жа'жда).
P.S.: So far I have a PHP script creating the string (жа'жда|жажда') used in regex (apostrophe is only after vowels) which matches it. My goal is to get rid of this script and use just regex in case it's possible.

Answer 1

If I understand your question,
have these options (d'isorder|di'sorder|dis'order|diso'rder|disor'der|disord'er|disorde'r|disorder‌​') and one of these is in the downloaded page and I need to find out which one it is
this may suit your needs:
<pre>
<?php
$s = "d'isorder|di'sorder|dis'order|diso'rder|disor'der|disord'er|disorde'r|disorder'|disorde'";
$s = explode("|",$s);
print_r($s);
$matches = preg_grep("#[aeiou]'#", $s);
print_r($matches);
running example: https://eval.in/207282

Answer 2

Uhm... Is this ok with you?
<?php
function find_stresses($word, $haystack) {
$pattern = preg_replace('/[aeiou]/', '\0\'?', $word);
$pattern = "/\b$pattern\b/";
// word = 'disorder', pattern = "diso'?rde'?r"
preg_match_all($pattern, $haystack, $matches);
return $matches[0];
}
$hay = "something diso'rder somethingelse";
find_stresses('disorder', $hay);
// => array(diso'rder)
You didn't specify if there can be more than one match, but if not, you could use preg_match instead of preg_match_all (faster). For example, in Italian language we have àncora and ancòra :P
Obviously if you use preg_match, the result would be a string instead of an array.

Answer 3

Based, on your code, and the requirements that no function is called and disorder is excluded. I think this is what you want. I have added a test vector.
<pre>
<?php
// test code
$downloadedPage = "
there is some disorde'r
there is some disord'er in the example
there is some di'sorder in the example
there also' is some order in the example
there is some disorder in the example
there is some dso'rder in the example
";
$word = 'disorder';
preg_match_all("#".preg_replace("#[aeiou]#", "$0'?", $word)."#iu"
, $downloadedPage
, $result
);
print_r($result);
$result = preg_grep("#'#"
, $result[0]
);
print_r($result);
// the code you need
$word = 'also';
preg_match("#".preg_replace("#[aeiou]#", "$0'?", $word)."#iu"
, $downloadedPage
, $result
);
print_r($result);
$result = preg_grep("#'#"
, $result
);
print_r($result);
Working demo: https://eval.in/207312