How do I jump between paragraphs in Vim?

Explanation

The { and } commands move the cursor by paragraph — jumping to the previous or next blank line. They are among the fastest ways to navigate through structured text and code.

How it works

• } moves the cursor forward to the next blank line (the end of the current paragraph)
• { moves the cursor backward to the previous blank line (the beginning of the current paragraph)
• A "paragraph" in Vim is defined as a block of text separated by one or more empty lines

Example

Given the text:

function greet() {
    console.log("hello");
}

function farewell() {
    console.log("goodbye");
}

function main() {
    greet();
    farewell();
}

With the cursor on the first line, pressing } jumps to the blank line after the greet function. Pressing } again jumps to the blank line after farewell. Pressing { jumps back up to the previous blank line.

Tips

• Use d} to delete from the cursor to the end of the current paragraph
• Use y} to yank the current paragraph
• Use vip to visually select the inner paragraph (excluding surrounding blank lines)
• Use vap to select the paragraph including one trailing blank line
• Use 3} to jump forward three paragraphs at once
• These motions are especially useful in code files where functions or blocks are separated by blank lines
• Both { and } are jump motions, so they are recorded in the jump list and you can return with <C-o>