In Vim/Vi, how do you move the cursor to the end of the previous word?

Question

In Vim's normal mode:

e goes to the end of the next word
w goes to the beginning of the next word
b goes to the beginning of the previous word

How do you move the cursor to the end of the previous word?

score 306 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 13 '16 at 19:27

306

Unfortunately it's not a single key... but ge is what you're looking for, I think.

edited Jun 13 '16 at 19:27

Kenny Evitt

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answered Feb 26 '11 at 05:37

jkerian

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For people like me wondering the difference between `ge` and `be`, it's that you can be in the middle of the word and you'll go to the end of the previous, while `be` you need to be on the first char of the initial word. – TankorSmash Dec 04 '13 at 04:06
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And `gE` for the end of the previous `WORD`. :) – nitsas May 20 '15 at 15:34
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seriously why isn't there a single key shortcut for this by default? this looks like something people would be using as frequently as `w`. am I missing something? (I know it can be mapped, just curious why) – Iman Akbari Apr 19 '17 at 08:08
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While `be` is convenient, it's a combination of two commands, so you can't use it like: `d` `be`. Whereas `d` `ge` does work – Daniel Thompson Mar 15 '18 at 08:43

score 61 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 13 '16 at 19:27

61

Try ge:

ge                      Backward to the end of word [count] |inclusive|.

                                                        *gE*
gE                      Backward to the end of WORD [count] |inclusive|.

edited Jun 13 '16 at 19:27

Kenny Evitt

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answered Feb 26 '11 at 05:40

Stephan

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The difference between `word` and `WORD`: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22931032/vim-word-vs-word – Kenneth Sundqvist Jan 15 '15 at 07:56

score 35 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 13 '16 at 19:28

35

as seen on VIM manual (section 03.1), you can use ge to go to the end of previous word

edited Jun 13 '16 at 19:28

Kenny Evitt

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answered Feb 26 '11 at 05:38

Eduardo Costa

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score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 14 '20 at 01:20

4

You may also want to do these to go to the space preceding a word (one character after ge: (both are only 2 keys)

FSpace will take you to the space after the previous word
Bh will also do that, in most cases.

The exception is when you are at the beginning of a line, in which case

k$ does something similar, in 3 keypresses

edited Jun 14 '20 at 01:20

Community

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answered Apr 20 '20 at 21:30

Nathan majicvr.com

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In Vim/Vi, how do you move the cursor to the end of the previous word?

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