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Lesson 4: Elements, Tags, and Attributes Explained

The HTML Masterclass: From Zero to Web Developer

4. Elements, Tags, and Attributes Explained

These three terms are the foundation of HTML vocabulary.

4.1 Tags

A tag is the specific keyword enclosed in angle brackets (< and >).

  • Opening Tag: <h1>
  • Closing Tag: </h1> (Note the forward slash /)

4.2 Elements

An element is the entire structure, including the opening tag, the content, and the closing tag.

html

This is the content of the paragraph element.

Empty Elements (Self-Closing): Some elements don't wrap content and thus don't need a closing tag. Examples include the image tag (<img>) and the line break tag (<br>).

4.3 Attributes

Attributes provide additional information about an element and are placed inside the opening tag. They come in name/value pairs: name="value".

Example using the lang attribute:

We typically add the lang attribute to the <html> tag to declare the language of the document, which helps search engines and screen readers.

html

...

Example using id attribute:

html

This is the intro.