diff --git a/src/main/java/ch/njol/skript/patterns/Keyword.java b/src/main/java/ch/njol/skript/patterns/Keyword.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..91dca7d86b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/ch/njol/skript/patterns/Keyword.java
@@ -0,0 +1,148 @@
+/**
+ *   This file is part of Skript.
+ *
+ *  Skript is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ *  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ *  the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ *  (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ *  Skript is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ *  GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ *  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ *  along with Skript.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ * Copyright Peter Güttinger, SkriptLang team and contributors
+ */
+package ch.njol.skript.patterns;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.stream.Collectors;
+
+/**
+ * A keyword describes a required component of a pattern.
+ * For example, the pattern '[the] name' has the keyword ' name'
+ */
+abstract class Keyword {
+
+	/**
+	 * Determines whether this keyword is present in a string.
+	 * @param expr The expression to search for this keyword.
+	 * @return Whether this keyword is present in <code>expr</code>.
+	 */
+	abstract boolean isPresent(String expr);
+
+	/**
+	 * Builds a list of keywords starting from the provided pattern element.
+	 * @param first The pattern to build keywords from.
+	 * @return A list of all keywords within <b>first</b>.
+	 */
+	public static Keyword[] buildKeywords(PatternElement first) {
+		List<Keyword> keywords = new ArrayList<>();
+		PatternElement next = first;
+		boolean starting = true; // whether it is the start of the pattern
+		boolean ending = next.next == null; // whether it is the end of the pattern
+		while (next != null) {
+			if (next instanceof LiteralPatternElement) { // simple literal strings are keywords
+				String literal = next.toString().trim();
+				while (literal.contains("  "))
+					literal = literal.replace("  ", " ");
+				keywords.add(new SimpleKeyword(literal, starting, ending));
+			} else if (next instanceof ChoicePatternElement) { // this element might contain some keywords
+				List<PatternElement> choiceElements = flatten(next);
+				if (choiceElements.stream().allMatch(e -> e instanceof LiteralPatternElement)) {
+					// all elements are literals, and this is a choice, meaning one of them must be required
+					// thus, we build a keyword that requires one of them to be present.
+					List<String> groupKeywords = choiceElements.stream()
+						.map(e -> {
+							String literal = e.toString().trim();
+							while (literal.contains("  "))
+								literal = literal.replace("  ", " ");
+							return literal;
+						})
+						.collect(Collectors.toList());
+					keywords.add(new GroupKeyword(groupKeywords, starting, ending));
+				}
+			} else if (next instanceof GroupPatternElement) { // groups need to be unwrapped (they might contain choices)
+				next = ((GroupPatternElement) next).getPatternElement();
+				continue;
+			}
+			starting = false;
+			next = next.next;
+		}
+		return keywords.toArray(new Keyword[0]);
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * A method for flattening a pattern element.
+	 * For example, a {@link ChoicePatternElement} wraps multiple elements. This method unwraps it.
+ 	 * @param element The element to flatten.
+	 * @return A list of all pattern elements contained within <code>element</code>.
+	 */
+	private static List<PatternElement> flatten(PatternElement element) {
+		if (element instanceof ChoicePatternElement) {
+			return ((ChoicePatternElement) element).getPatternElements().stream()
+				.flatMap(e -> flatten(e).stream())
+				.collect(Collectors.toList());
+		} else if (element instanceof GroupPatternElement) {
+			element = ((GroupPatternElement) element).getPatternElement();
+		}
+		return Collections.singletonList(element);
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * A keyword implementation that requires a specific string to be present.
+	 */
+	private static final class SimpleKeyword extends Keyword {
+
+		private final String keyword;
+		private final boolean starting, ending;
+
+		SimpleKeyword(String keyword, boolean starting, boolean ending) {
+			this.keyword = keyword;
+			this.starting = starting;
+			this.ending = ending;
+		}
+
+		@Override
+		public boolean isPresent(String expr) {
+			if (starting)
+				return expr.startsWith(keyword);
+			if (ending)
+				return expr.endsWith(keyword);
+			return expr.contains(keyword);
+		}
+
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * A keyword implementation that requires at least one string out of a collection of strings to be present.
+	 */
+	private static final class GroupKeyword extends Keyword {
+
+		private final Collection<String> keywords;
+		private final boolean starting, ending;
+
+		GroupKeyword(Collection<String> keywords, boolean starting, boolean ending) {
+			this.keywords = keywords;
+			this.starting = starting;
+			this.ending = ending;
+		}
+
+		@Override
+		public boolean isPresent(String expr) {
+			if (starting)
+				return keywords.stream().anyMatch(expr::startsWith);
+			if (ending)
+				return keywords.stream().anyMatch(expr::endsWith);
+			return keywords.stream().anyMatch(expr::contains);
+		}
+
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/ch/njol/skript/patterns/SkriptPattern.java b/src/main/java/ch/njol/skript/patterns/SkriptPattern.java
index f43c521b59b..40d092ca7a0 100644
--- a/src/main/java/ch/njol/skript/patterns/SkriptPattern.java
+++ b/src/main/java/ch/njol/skript/patterns/SkriptPattern.java
@@ -23,8 +23,6 @@
 import ch.njol.skript.lang.SkriptParser;
 import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable;
 
-import java.util.ArrayList;
-import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Locale;
 
 public class SkriptPattern {
@@ -32,21 +30,22 @@ public class SkriptPattern {
 	private final PatternElement first;
 	private final int expressionAmount;
 
-	private final String[] keywords;
+	private final Keyword[] keywords;
 
 	public SkriptPattern(PatternElement first, int expressionAmount) {
 		this.first = first;
 		this.expressionAmount = expressionAmount;
-		keywords = getKeywords(first);
+		keywords = Keyword.buildKeywords(first);
 	}
 
 	@Nullable
 	public MatchResult match(String expr, int flags, ParseContext parseContext) {
 		// Matching shortcut
 		String lowerExpr = expr.toLowerCase(Locale.ENGLISH);
-		for (String keyword : keywords)
-			if (!lowerExpr.contains(keyword))
+		for (Keyword keyword : keywords) {
+			if (!keyword.isPresent(lowerExpr))
 				return null;
+		}
 
 		expr = expr.trim();
 
@@ -68,24 +67,6 @@ public String toString() {
 		return first.toFullString();
 	}
 
-	public static String[] getKeywords(PatternElement first) {
-		List<String> keywords = new ArrayList<>();
-		PatternElement next = first;
-		while (next != null) {
-			if (next instanceof LiteralPatternElement) {
-				String literal = next.toString().trim();
-				while (literal.contains("  "))
-					literal = literal.replace("  ", " ");
-				keywords.add(literal);
-			} else if (next instanceof GroupPatternElement) {
-				next = ((GroupPatternElement) next).getPatternElement();
-				continue;
-			}
-			next = next.next;
-		}
-		return keywords.toArray(new String[0]);
-	}
-
 	/**
 	 * @return the size of the {@link MatchResult#expressions} array
 	 * from a match.