$re = '/(\S*)watch\?v=(\S*)/m';
$str = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlNc-jb4ESk&t';
$subst = "\1embed/\2";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php