How to write HTML

There are two different kinds of HTML elements, the most common one is a open/close element, which looks like this:

We write our content between two HTML tags (an opening and a closing tag), which are identified by a tag name, eg. element, wrapped in < and > angle brackets (you might know them as the greater than and less than symbols or chevrons).

There’s one difference between the opening and closing tags, as the closing tag has a forward slash (/) before the tag name, to let the browser know that it’s a closing tag, and our content is finished.

The other kind of HTML element is a self-closing element, which doesn’t require a closing tag, but instead has a forward slash (/) before the second chevron.

We’ll look at self-closing elements a bit more later, and how we can give them content without putting it between two HTML tags.