The phrase "a precursor to another" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to indicate that one thing comes before and leads to or influences another thing.
Example: "The discovery of penicillin was a precursor to another major advancement in medicine: the development of antibiotics."
Alternatives: "a forerunner to another" or "a predecessor to another".
It's a precursor to another stroke, the butterfly, which he thinks he'll learn next.
The change in Moody's outlook could be a precursor to another downgrade in the rating.
This early pratfall became a lasting symbol of his chaotic management style — and a precursor to another fiasco, Hillarycare, that Obama is also working hard not to emulate.
The Mets do not have a bevy of young pitchers either, but Phillips said that trading Yoshii could be a precursor to another move.
And I believe my children understand that if they assist the Bradleys in the next storm, it's not a precursor to another gift card.
Here and elsewhere, "Let the Great World Spin" can feel like a precursor to another novel of colliding cultures: "The Bonfire of the Vanities," Tom Wolfe's classic portrait of New York in the 1980s.
Thus, "Every Soul Is a Circus," whose heroine is involved in a tug of war be tween a stern ringmaster and a puckish acrobat, suddenly Seems like a lighter precursor to another revival, "Deaths and Entrances". Here, too, Miss Graham's inquiry into the fan tasies of the feminine psyche shows the heroine torn between the contrasting male figures, The Dark Beloved and The Po etic Beloved.
The comment drew this retort from another reader:"iPaq as a precursor to iPad Are you on drugs?
N.B.A. owners and players held another "information-sharing session" on Wednesday, a precursor to negotiations aimed at reaching a new labor deal by the summer of 2011.
Its use of fictional devices, such as building to a suspenseful moment with one character and then switching to another, was radical at the time, and made it a precursor to the New Journalism of the nineteen-sixties and seventies.
Coconut water, another favourite with health food fans, was a precursor to the melon juice fad and has proven its bankability.
