replacing a carriage return with an html break

Hi all, I am filling out a form <text area>, and submitting it to the next page which just prints what I submitted, but it doesnt print any returns, i used when i filled out the previous <text area> I found on php.net there is a ereg_replace funtion and a trim function but I am unsure if either one will work and im not sure how to use them. Thanks, nate