sub words_before {
    my ( $word, $string ) = @_;
    my ( $before ) = $string =~ m/(.*?)\Q$word\E/g;
    my $words_before = () = $before =~ m/(\S+)/g;
    return $words_before;
}

##</code><code>##

print 'There are ' . words_before( $word, $string ) . ' words before "' . $word . '" in the string "' . $string . '"' . "\n";