Word Motions

Move a word at a time. The grammar's first real noun.

Keys: w, b, e, ge

w/b/e/ge move forward and backward by word. They're motions, so they pair with operators: dw deletes a word, cw changes one, yw yanks one.

Moving one character at a time with hjkl is fine for surgery. For everything else you want to move a word at a time. That's what w, b, e, and ge do — and because they're motions, they double as the noun half of every editing command.

Forward to the start of the next word
KeyNote
w
Back to the start of the current/previous word
KeyNote
b
Forward to the end of the current/next word
KeyNote
e
Back to the end of the previous word
KeyNote
g
e
w — next word
b — previous word
e — end of word
ge — back-end

Reference

Key Direction Lands on Counts
w Forward Start of next word Yes
b Back Start of word Yes
e Forward End of word Yes
ge Back End of previous word Yes
WBEgE Same, but WORD-wise (whitespace boundaries) — Yes

Worked example — w b e

Move by word boundary.

Step 1 · Cursor on 't' of 'the'.
Cursor on 't' of 'the'.
Step 2 · w · w — start of next word.
w — start of next word.
Step 3 · e · e — end of current word.
e — end of current word.
Step 4 · b · b — back to 'q'.
b — back to 'q'.

w/b move to word boundaries; e moves to the end of a word. With operators: dw, db, de all differ slightly — see grammar.

▶ Try this in the simulator

See also: Delete, Change, WORD Motions, The Universal Grammar