HTML Language Code

Definition and Usage

An HTML language code is a short tag that names the human language of your markup. You apply it with the global lang attribute—almost always on <html>, and again on nested elements when a phrase is in another language.

What does a language code do in HTML?

It tells browsers, search engines, and assistive technologies which language the content uses. Screen readers pick voices and pronunciation; hyphenation and spell-check follow language rules; crawlers match locale preferences.

Which codes should you use?

Prefer ISO 639-1 two-letter codes such as en, fr, and hi. For regional variants, use BCP 47 tags like en-US or pt-BR (language plus region from HTML country codes).

When should you set lang in HTML?

On every HTML document you publish. Set the primary language on <html>. For multilingual pages, mark foreign quotes, titles, or blocks with their own lang so accessibility checks (WCAG 3.1.1 / 3.1.2) pass.

HTML Syntax

You can also set lang on any element (for example <p lang="fr">). Nested values override the document default for that subtree only.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>HTML Document</title>
</head>
<body>
  <!-- Content of the HTML document -->
</body>
</html>

Core HTML Concepts

Terms you will use when declaring language in HTML:

Common HTML language codes

How to Use Language Codes in HTML

Declare the page language first, then override only where the language changes.

1. Pick the primary ISO 639-1 (or BCP 47) code for the page.
2. Add lang="..." on the <html> start tag.
3. Keep <meta charset="UTF-8"> early in <head> so multilingual text encodes correctly.
4. For mixed-language content, wrap the foreign phrase in an element and set a nested lang.
5. For alternate language pages, use hreflang on links—do not replace content lang.

Live Preview

Change the language code on a sample paragraph. The visible text stays the same; the lang tag updates for study (screen readers would use the new code).

HTML Examples

Short, copy-ready snippets. Use Try It Yourself for a live HTML editor (plain HTML, no CSS required).

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>English page</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Hello</h1>
  <p>This document is in English.</p>
</body>
</html>

document.documentElement.lang → en

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Mixed languages</title>
</head>
<body>
  <p>This paragraph is English (document default).</p>
  <p lang="fr">Ce paragraphe est en français.</p>
  <p lang="es">Este párrafo está en español.</p>
  <p lang="hi">यह अनुच्छेद हिंदी में है।</p>
</body>
</html>

(default) en
French block: fr
Spanish block: es
Hindi block: hi

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>HTML Document</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>English (United States)</h1>
  <p>The lang attribute uses a BCP 47 tag: language + region.</p>
</body>
</html>

lang="en-US" → English (United States)

ISO 639-1 Language Code Table

Full HTML language code reference (191 entries). Some rows list legacy or alternate codes separated by commas—prefer the first code for new HTML projects.

Key Takeaways