Basic Movement in Vim
From the Vim cheat sheet · Movement · verified Jul 2026
Basic Movement
Fundamental cursor movement commands
text
h - Move left
j - Move down
k - Move up
l - Move right
w - Move forward one word
b - Move backward one word
e - Move to end of word
W - Move forward one WORD (space-delimited)
B - Move backward one WORD
E - Move to end of WORD
0 - Move to beginning of line
^ - Move to first non-blank character
$ - Move to end of line
gg - Go to first line of file
G - Go to last line of file
5G or :5 - Go to line 5💡 Use numbers before commands: 5j moves down 5 lines
⚡ w/b for small words, W/B for WORDS (faster navigation)
📌 hjkl keeps your hands on home row
🟢 Master hjkl before using arrow keys
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