title: I can't figure out why this regular expression isn't working
body: <p>So I'm currently learning about regular expressions, and was trying out the exercises here: <a href="https://regex.sketchengine.co.uk/cgi/ex4.cgi" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://regex.sketchengine.co.uk/cgi/ex4.cgi</a></p>
  
  <p>In particular, I've been able to match every line on the left (without matching any lines on the right), except for the following line:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mess! He did not let it
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I know this must be a hideous answer, but here is what I have:</p>
  
  <pre><code>^[mbadhi][^n]..[^W]([a-zA-Z'") ]+[.!?][a-zA-Z'") ]+)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What I don't understand (besides why it doesn't work), is when I remove the 'n' inside [^n], it matches the sentence (but also a pieces of the right side). I must be missing something pretty fundamental, because my understanding is that ^[mbadhi] should match the first character of any line that starts with one of those letters and then any second letter that isn't the letter 'n'. 'me' from mess should match that, no?</p>