Question:

Do the appetizers precede or proceed the main course?

Answer:

precede

How to remember it:

Consider the prefix, pre–. It means "earlier than," or "before" – as we can see in a phrase like preexisting condition, or in the word prefix itself.

To precede is to go or come before, or to be earlier than.

The root of proceed means "to go forward," a meaning we can see in a sentence like "Let's now proceed with the meal."