$re = '/<[^<>]*:[^<>]*>|(:\w+:)/m';
$str = ':fra: :fra: <:fra:12312312> <a:fra:!232131> :fra::fra:
Some text:fra: Hello:fra::fra::fra: :fra:';
preg_match_all($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