input = "I am a football fan"
gsub("(?i)\\b[a-z]\\b", "REPLACEMENT", input, perl=T) ## To replace 1 ASCII letter words
gsub("(?i)\\b[a-z]{2}\\b", "REPLACEMENT", input, perl=T) ## To replace 2 ASCII letter words
aW5wdXQgPSAiSSBhbSBhIGZvb3RiYWxsIGZhbiIKZ3N1YigiKD9pKVxcYlthLXpdXFxiIiwgIlJFUExBQ0VNRU5UIiwgaW5wdXQsIHBlcmw9VCkgIyMgVG8gcmVwbGFjZSAxIEFTQ0lJIGxldHRlciB3b3Jkcwpnc3ViKCIoP2kpXFxiW2Etel17Mn1cXGIiLCAiUkVQTEFDRU1FTlQiLCBpbnB1dCwgcGVybD1UKSAjIyBUbyByZXBsYWNlIDIgQVNDSUkgbGV0dGVyIHdvcmRzCg==