and when should I use ?
The span tag just tells the browser to apply what ever style changes are included within the span and if there is no styling within the span then there would be no formatting applied to the enclosed text. This is a bit different from the div tag which incorporates a paragraph break even if no styling options are included within a div. So it is useful when you want to apply styles to elements ... What is a "span" and when should I use one? - Stack Overflow As others have answered… div and p are “block elements” (now redefined as Flow Content) and span is an “inline element” (Phrasing Content). Yes, you may change the default presentation of these elements, but there is a difference between “flow” versus “block”, and “phrasing” versus “inline”. An element classified as flow content can only be used where flow content is ... The difference between (p span) and (p > span) is in the CSS selector hierarchy. Since the tag provides no visual change by itself, it doesn't make sense to me to have an auto-closing span block with no content. The tag provides a way to add a hook to a part of a text or a part of a document. When the text is hooked in a span element you can add styles to the content, or manipulate the content with for example JavaScript. However, to answer your question, yes the html code ...