Я искал ключи везде.

Искал is the past tense of искать (to look for / to search for).

So:

• я ищу = I am looking for
• я искал = I was looking for / I looked for

In this sentence, Я искал ключи везде, the speaker is talking about something that already happened.

Also, in Russian past tense, the verb often shows gender in the singular:

• я искал = I (male speaker) was looking for
• я искала = I (female speaker) was looking for

Because Russian uses a different structure from English here.

The verb искать takes a direct object, so you simply say:

• искать ключи = to look for keys

English needs look for, but Russian does not use a separate word like for in this expression.

More examples:

• Я ищу телефон. = I’m looking for my phone.
• Она искала работу. = She was looking for work.

Ключи is the plural form of ключ (key).

• singular: ключ
• plural: ключи

After искать, the noun goes in the accusative case. But for many inanimate plural nouns, the accusative form is the same as the nominative form.

So:

• nominative plural: ключи
• accusative plural: ключи

That is why you see ключи here.

Russian has no articles like a or the.

So ключи can mean:

• keys
• the keys

The exact meaning depends on context.

In many real situations, Я искал ключи will naturally be understood as I was looking for the keys or my keys, depending on what is already known.

It can mean either, depending on context.

The verb искал is imperfective, which often suggests:

• an ongoing process
• repeated effort
• focus on the activity, not the result

So common translations are:

• I was looking for the keys everywhere.
• I looked for the keys everywhere.

What it does not tell you is whether the speaker found them. It only tells you about the searching.

Russian uses aspect, and this is very important.

• искать = imperfective
• найти = perfective, but it means to find, not to look for

With искал, the speaker focuses on the process of searching.

So:

• Я искал ключи везде. = I was looking for the keys everywhere.

This says nothing about success.

If you want to say the keys were found, you might say:

• Я нашёл ключи. = I found the keys.

Russian does not usually use a simple perfective partner meaning exactly to look for once and complete it in the same straightforward way English learners may expect. The important contrast is often:

• искал = searched / was searching
• нашёл = found

Везде means everywhere.

So:

• Я искал ключи везде. = I looked for the keys everywhere.

It is an adverb, so it describes where the action happened.

Related words:

• здесь = here
• там = there
• везде = everywhere
• нигде = nowhere

Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible.

The sentence Я искал ключи везде is a neutral, natural way to say it.

But Russian can also change the order for emphasis:

• Я везде искал ключи. = I looked for the keys everywhere.
• Везде я искал ключи. = Everywhere, I looked for the keys.
• Ключи я искал везде. = It was the keys that I looked for everywhere.

The core meaning stays similar, but the emphasis changes.

Yes, very often.

Russian frequently leaves out possessive words like my, your, or his when the meaning is obvious from context.

So in real life:

• Я искал ключи.

often means:

• I was looking for my keys.

If you want to make it explicit, you can say:

• Я искал свои ключи. = I was looking for my keys.

The stress is on the second syllable:

• искА́л

A simple pronunciation guide:

• я ≈ ya
• искал ≈ ees-KAL
• ключи ≈ klyu-CHEE
• везде ≈ vyez-DYE

So the whole sentence sounds roughly like:

• ya ees-KAL klyu-CHEE vyez-DYE

Only the past-tense verb changes:

• Я искала ключи везде.

That is because in Russian singular past tense, the verb agrees with the speaker’s gender:

• male: искал
• female: искала

The rest of the sentence stays the same.