Replace the first word of a string

How about something like

words = {} words['word'] = 'newword' words['otherword'] = 'newotherword'

outmessage = message splits = message.split(' ') if (words[splits[0]])   splits[0] = words[splits[0]]   outmessage = splits.join(' ') end

obviously it can be cleaned up a fair bit, but the hash will save having a god awful if or switch statement

Simon