$re = '/({{i18n .*?}})/';
$str = '<input class="scf-composer-msg" type="text" class="scf-js-userfilter" data-field-type="userdropdown" name="composedFor" placeholder="{{#if properties.composedFor}}{{i18n "Composed for "}}
{{author.name}}{{else}}{{i18n "Compose On Behalf of a User"}}{{/if}}" data-attrib="composedFor" /> ';
$subst = "$";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
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