Je garde toujours mes clés dans mon sac pour ne pas les perdre.

In this sentence, garder means to keep or to keep/store something somewhere, not usually to guard in the English security sense.

So:

• Je garde mes clés dans mon sac = I keep my keys in my bag

Depending on context, garder can also mean:

• to keep
• to leave
• to look after / watch
• sometimes to guard

But here the natural translation is keep.

In French, short adverbs like toujours often come after the conjugated verb.

So:

• Je garde toujours mes clés...

This is the normal word order for I always keep my keys...

Compare:

• Je mange souvent ici. = I often eat here.
• Il arrive toujours en retard. = He always arrives late.

English often places always before the main verb, but French commonly puts toujours after the conjugated verb.

Mes means my. French uses a possessive adjective here because the speaker is talking about their own keys.

• mes clés = my keys
• les clés = the keys

Just like in English, if you want to say whose keys they are, you use the possessive:

• mon / ma / mes = my
• ton / ta / tes = your
• son / sa / ses = his/her/its

Also, in French, you normally do not use an article together with a possessive adjective. So you say:

• mes clés not
• les mes clés

Because sac is a masculine noun in French.

Possessive adjectives agree with the noun being possessed, not with the owner.

So:

• mon sac = my bag
• ma clé = my key
• mes clés = my keys

Here:

• sac is masculine singular → mon
• clés is feminine plural → mes

That is why the sentence has both mes clés and mon sac.

Dans means in or inside.

So:

• dans mon sac = in my bag

It shows physical location: the keys are inside the bag.

French often uses dans where English uses in for something inside a container or enclosed space.

Examples:

• dans la boîte = in the box
• dans la voiture = in the car
• dans mon sac = in my bag

The French present tense is often used for habitual actions, just like the English present simple.

So:

• Je garde toujours mes clés dans mon sac means I always keep my keys in my bag

It describes a regular habit, not just what the speaker is doing at this exact moment.

French present tense can cover ideas like:

• I keep
• I am keeping (depending on context)
• habitual actions like I always keep

Here, because of toujours, the habitual meaning is very clear.

This means in order not to lose them or more simply so as not to lose them.

The structure is:

• pour = to / in order to
• ne pas
  • infinitive = not to do something
• les perdre = lose them

So:

• pour perdre = to lose
• pour ne pas perdre = not to lose
• pour ne pas les perdre = not to lose them

A key point: with an infinitive, the negation usually goes before the infinitive:

• ne pas perdre
• ne jamais oublier
• ne rien dire

This is different from a conjugated verb, where ne and pas go around the verb:

• Je ne perds pas mes clés.

But with the infinitive:

• pour ne pas perdre mes clés

Because les is a direct object pronoun meaning them, and in French object pronouns usually come before the verb.

So:

• perdre mes clés = to lose my keys
• les perdre = to lose them

In this sentence, les refers back to mes clés.

That gives:

• pour ne pas les perdre = so as not to lose them

This word order may feel unusual to English speakers because English puts them after the verb:

• to lose them

But French puts the pronoun before:

• les perdre

Yes, absolutely.

Both are correct:

• pour ne pas perdre mes clés
• pour ne pas les perdre

The second version uses les to avoid repeating mes clés.

Using the pronoun often sounds smoother and more natural because the noun has already been mentioned.

So French works a lot like English here:

• I keep my keys in my bag so as not to lose my keys
• I keep my keys in my bag so as not to lose them

The second version is usually better stylistically.

Here, les means them, not the.

French les can be either:

1. the plural definite article = the

   • les clés = the keys

2. a plural direct object pronoun = them

   • Je les perds = I lose them

In this sentence:

• mes clés has already been mentioned
• les replaces mes clés

So in:

• pour ne pas les perdre

les = them

A careful pronunciation would be roughly:

Zhuh gard too-zhoor may clay dahn mon sak poor nuh pah lay pairdr

A few useful notes:

• Je sounds like zhuh
• garde has a hard g
• toujours sounds like too-zhoor
• clés sounds like clay
• dans has a nasal vowel
• pour sounds like poor
• les in les perdre sounds like lay

You may also hear natural connected speech, where everything flows together more smoothly than the written words suggest.

Yes, it is completely natural.

It sounds like a normal, everyday way to say that someone keeps their keys in their bag so they do not lose them.

It is a good example of several very common French patterns:

• present tense for habits: Je garde
• adverb placement: toujours
• location with dans
• purpose with pour
• negation with an infinitive: ne pas perdre
• object pronoun before infinitive: les perdre

So it is a very useful sentence to study.