If it's really "get everything before a certain phrase" then you can also use split instead of regex. 
$_ = 'nothing can stop the bus on the road';
print +(split /stop/)[0], "\n";
print +(split /bus/)[0], "\n";

# output (with trailing space)
nothing can
nothing can stop the

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In reply to Re: Tell regex to stop at "phrase", instead of char - how? by naikonta
in thread Tell regex to stop at "phrase", instead of char - how? by isync

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