$re = '/@(\"[\w\s]+\")|(?!@(\w+)@(\w+))@(\w+)/';
$str = 'There is @key1 apples on the table.
There is @"key1" apples on the table.
There is @key 4 apples on the table.
There is @"key 4" apples on the table.
There is @key@key2 apples on the table.
There is @key3 apples on the table. (second step)
There is @"key @"key3"" apples on the table.
There is @"key 4" apples on the table. (second step)
There is @"key @key3" apples on the table.
There is @"key 4" apples on the table. (second step)
There is @"key @key3 " apples on the table.
There is @"key 4 " apples on the table. (second step)
There is @"key @"key3@key7"" apples on the table.
There is @"key @"key32"" apples on the table. (second step)
There is @"key 21" apples on the table. (3rd step)
There is @key@key2@key3@key4 apples on the table.
There is @key@key2@key35 apples on the table. (second step)
There is @key@key26 apples on the table. (3rd step)
There is @key7 apples on the table. (4th step)
';
preg_match_all($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