text: I saw
  word =~/^qu/
  in a program, what does it do:?
  might as well show the whole method
  def first_vowel(word) if word =~/^qu/ 2 else word.gsub(/[aeiou].*$/, '').size endend
  Any ideas as I'm lost om what its even doling?
  ~= is the ruby match operator.It matches a string to a regular expression.
  e.g.
  'Pullo' =~ /o/
  # => 4
  If there is no match, it will return nil.
  As for the method you posted:
  def first_vowel(word)
  if word =~/^qu/
  2
  else
  word.gsub(/[aeiou].*$/, '').size
  end
  end
  it checks to see if the word it receives as an argument starts with a "qu".If so, it returns 2
  Otherwise it replaces everything after (and including) the occurrence of the first vowel, then returns the size of what's left.
  thanks
  This is the best and only answer.Closing the thread.