$re = '/([^\']*(?=lamb)[^\']*)/';
$str = '\'Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full!
One for the master
One for the dame\'
\'Mary had a little lamb,
its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went,
the lamb was sure to go.\'';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
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