title: php preg_replace match string but replace only part of it
body: <p>I have this text:
  <code>Retailer-ul Amazon foloseste metode severe pentru a-si descuraja etc. angajatii din depozite sa nu mai fure din produse. Pe ecrane li se arata siluete de angajati care au furat produse, li se spune ce au furat si cat valorau produsele, aparand si mentiunea "arestat" sau "concediat", scrie Bloomberg. Unii spun ca... and so on</code> and I am trying to replace all strings that are abbreviations inside a fraze, so for example <code>etc.</code> is an abbreviation because it's following word <code>angajatii</code> starts with a lowercase letter, as opposed to <code>produse.</code> which is the end of the fraze because it's following word <code>Pe</code> starts with a uppercase letter and I don't want to remove it.</p>
  
  <p>I have this code <code>$subject = preg_replace('~\b[a-z]+\.\s[a-z]~', '', $subject);</code> which matches every abbreviation with a <code>.</code> after it and a space (<code>\s</code>) and then a lowercase letter <code>[a-z]</code> (eg. <code>descuraja etc. angajatii</code> turns into <code>descuraja ngajatii</code> instead of <code>descuraja angajatii</code>). I don't want to replace the lowercase letter of its following word. I somehow can't avoid it being replaced. How can I still keep the same matching pattern but replace only the abbreviation and the dot and the whitespace after it? Thank you.</p>