An HTML document consists of HTML elements. HTML elements are defined by HTML tags. HTML Tags * HTML tags are markup surrounded by angle brackets like <html> * HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b> * The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag HTML Elements * An HTML element starts with a start tag * The element content is everything between the start and end tag * An HTML element ends with an end tag Example <html> <body> <p>This is my first paragraph</p> </body> </html> The example above contains 3 HTML elements. A <p> Element The <p> element defines a paragraph in the HTML document: <p>This is my first paragraph</p> The element starts with a start tag: <p> The element content is: This is my first paragraph The element ends with an end tag: </p> A <body> Element The <body> element defines the body of the HTML document: <body> <p>This is my first paragraph</p> </body> The element starts with a start tag: <body> The element content is another element (a paragraph) The element ends with an end tag: </body> An <html> Element The <html> element defines the whole HTML document: <html> <body> <p>This is my first paragraph</p> </body> </html> The element starts with a start tag: <html> The element content is another element (the body) The element ends with an end tag: </html> Why do We Use Lowercase Tags? HTML tags are not case sensitive: <P> means the same as <p>. Plenty of web sites use uppercase HTML tags in their pages. W3Schools use lowercase tags because the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends lowercase in HTML 4, and demands lowercase tags in newer versions of (X)HTML.