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The Basic Language of the Web: HTML

Posted by Paul Lulami on Monday, June 21st 2027

All modern websites and web applications are built using three fundamental technologies: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. These are the languages of the web.

In this post, let's focus on HTML. We will learn what HTML is all about, and why you too should learn it.

Introduction to HTML

At its heart, HTML is a language made up of elements such like:

• Paragraph
• Bulleted list
• Table
• Header
• Three columns of content
• A navigation menu

Which can be applied to pieces of text to give them different meaning in a document, structure a document into logical sections, and embed content such as images and videos into a page.

This module will introduce the first two of these and introduce fundamental concepts and syntax you need to know to understand HTML.

What is HTML?

HTML HyperText Markup Language is the code that is used to structure a web page and its content.

For example, content could be structured within a set of paragraphs, a list of bulleted points, or using images and data tables.

As the title suggests,this article will give you a basic understanding of HTML and its functions.

HTML is a markup language that defines the structure of your content.

HTML consists of a series of elements, which you use to enclose, or wrap, different parts of the content to make it appear a certain way, or act a certain way.

The enclosing tags can make a word or image hyperlink to somewhere else, can italicize words, can make the font bigger or smaller, and so on.

In HTML, each element is made up of 3 parts:

1. The opening tag — Consists of the name of the element wrapped in opening and closing angle brackets. It states where the element begins.
2. The closing tag — This is the same as the opening tag, except that it includes a forward slash before the element name. This states where the element ends.
3. The content — This is the content of the element, usually a text.
4. The element — The opening tag, the closing tag, and the content together comprise the element.

You can learn more at the MDN Web Docs.

Why should you learn HTML?

There are countless reasons for learning the fundamental language of the web.Here are 5 of them:

• To be able to use the fundamental web dev language
• To hand-craft beautiful websites instead of relying on tools like Worpress or Wix
• To build web applications
• To impress friends
• To have fun 😃

Hopefully you learned something new here. See you next time!