$re = '/(\skeyword\s|\skey\s|\s(?=.*[\[{]|[^\]}]+$))/m';
$str = '[] []
[] keyword []
[] key []
[] ["can contain spaces"]
[] keyword ["can contain spaces"]
[] key ["can contain spaces"]
{} {}
{} keyword {}
{} key {}
{} {"can":"contain spaces"}
{} keyword {"can":"contain spaces"}
{} key {"can":"contain spaces"}
string string
string keyword string
string key string';
preg_match_all($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