[notahacker]

> “I lost my keys” in British English implies that you already have your keys back, or you’ve had new ones made, or that you no longer live in that same flat or whatever

As a very standard British English speaker I'm not convinced of this. Sure, "I've lost my keys" normally implies it's an ongoing issue, but "I lost my keys" also can unless the context says otherwise.

I actually did lose my wallet recently, and can assure you when I told my British family "I lost my wallet" their first response was to ask if I'd checked everywhere and cancelled my cards, not ask me about my new wallet!

"I've lost my wallet" might be more emphatic perhaps, but the conclusions we draw from that are dependent on context too (I've also lost my passport on a couple of occasions, but I don't think anybody's inferring I'm still troubled by a lack of passport from that phrasing!)

[d1sxeyes]

That’s quite a specific example with potentially disastrous effects if you’re misunderstood (what if you haven’t cancelled your cards?!), but you’re right, I’m just painting broad strokes as to what is more likely, rather than strict rules. Whatever strict rules you try to apply in linguistics collapse when you look at real people using the language!

The ‘repeated occasions’ is a different use case - I don’t think anyone would infer you’re troubled by a lack of passport, but they might infer that you’re troubled by a tendency to mislay things!