Super-silly beginner's question: What does the q keystroke do and how to get back to NORMAL mode?

[halloleo]

I'm just staring out with sc-im and it looks super cool.

However because I'm not too used to the vi/vim style :q for quitting, I'm sometimes just hitting q without the colon.

Then sc-im seems to be in a strange state, which I get it out of after a few (random) keystrokes, but this is not satisfatory.

What's the best way to get back to NORMAL mode (and then via colon to COMMAND mode) once I typed accidentally q in NORMAL mode?

[andmarti1424]

ESC key

[halloleo]

Aha, cool. So Esc gets me out of it, excellent. ut what does q alone gets me into?

[andmarti1424]

nothing by default.

[halloleo]

Thanks @andmarti1424 for being so patient!

However I don't understand it: When q does nothing, why can't I press : q afterwards? Why do I ahvet to press ESC first? Feels to me the plain q does change something - maybe the mode?

Sorry for these beginner's questions, but I really don't get it...